XPsp2 - firewall enable/disable?

[hutch606]

Deploying XP SP2 to laptops. While attached to internal network, they need no software firewall. However, they travel and connect remotely and do require the ICF to be enabled. They will be connecting both via wired and wireless interfaces.

Aside from establishing a cheezy scheduled task to enable/disable ICF based on local network addresses(192.168.1.0/24 is our network)--have any ideas on how to accomplish this in a more professional manner? Thanks!!!

 

[longlivegoku]

It's actually not a bad thing to have the firewall enabled even when they are on site. I have made a batch file that opens all ports and 'ok's' the apps we need it to allow. It seems to work pretty well and haven't seen problems yet with having both enabled.

 

[smah]

You could use the registry keys that linney linked in thread779-908764 to create enable/disable .reg files on the desktop. Someone would then just need to remember to run them.

 

[hutch606]

Sadly, we have roughly 400 users, none of which would actually remember to manually enable/disabled the FW, hence the need to automate the process. As for leaving it on full-time, I require ports to be available while on-net (i.e., SMS) but do not want it open while traveling off-net.