adjusting firewall in windows2000

  • Thread starter Thread starter george
  • Start date Start date
G

george

I am getting a slow signal from my dsl provider and they
have advised me to turn down the firewall in my computer.
I am running a Dell with Windows2000. Can someone tell me
how to do this. Thank you.
 
Windows 2000 does not come with a firewall.
With a DSL connection and Windows 2000, which does not have a firewall, you
*should* have a third party app as a firewall. Check with company that makes
your firewall.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE
 
I think they're giving you bad advice. The most typical problem with
firewalls is that it blocks you entirely from doing something, not that it
slows down the connection visibly. If your firewall *WAS* causing slow
performance, "turning down the firewall" would not be the correct thing to
recommend.

If other things on your computer that do not use the Internet [MS Word,
games, etc.] are slow, then you may need to do some computer tuning. When
your computer is slow, press the CTRL-ALT-DELETE keys together to bring up
Task Manager, and look to see what if any processes are using up a lot of
free CPU time, and make sure there is sufficient "System Idle Process" CPU
time. Click on CPU to sort the processes by which ones are using the most
CPU time.

Also, use the software below to look at what is configured to start

http://securityadmin.info/faq.asp#startup

Make sure you are not infected with a virus. Be sure you are running
anti-virus software that is set to update itself automatically every week or
so. www.grisoft.com and Bit Defender are two free anti-virus programs.
Also, www.zonealarm.com, www.kerio.com and www.sygate.com are all free
firewall programs, you should consider using one.

Run Scandisk and Defrag.

You could also consider running through these steps to see whether your
computer has been hacked:

http://securityadmin.info/faq.asp#hacked

If you have another computer you can borrow that is not slow, plug that in
and see whether DSL internet is slow on that computer. If it isn't, then you
can suspect your computer needs some help. If it is, then you can suspect
your DSL needs some help.

Slow DSL can be caused by poor DSL / phone line quality, by the distance you
are from the phone company CO, and by a DSL line misconfigured by the DSL
company. They should be able to monitor your line and see if anything is
wrong on the line.
 
They gave you bogus advice. Firewalls are for the most part either on or
disabled. DSL connections are notorious for having problems with the MTU -
maximum transmission unit setting. If it is too high, packet fragmentation
can result and cause the connection to crawl. MTU configuration would be set
either in the settings of your NAT/router device or in the pppoe connectoid
on your computer. If you are using a pppoe connectoid I suggest you get a
NAT/router device that will probably work a lot better and protect your
computer from uninitiated inbound traffic. Best Buy and others sell these
devices and there is one shown in the link below as an example. Call your
ISP back and ask them about MTU settings. I think around 1450 is a good
compromise. --- Steve


http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=33-122-008&DEPA=5
 
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