Disable Windows Firewall GPO in SBS 2008

About a week ago I migrated my SBS 2003 server to SBS 2008. Everything went fine without any issue. Now there is a client PC which uses ACT7 and because It don’t have access. I searched for some help and found an article saying to disable Windows Firewall on the workstations. But as far as I know windows firewall is controlled from group policies and the option to enable / disable the firewall is grayed out on the workstation.

Can anybody please tell me from where can I disable the Firewall option in SBS 2008 Group Policy for workstation?

Can you just ask the vendors which specific ports they actually need to opened. Because I think the firewalls should be opened on the server.

Thanks for the suggestion but I guess you misunderstood my problem. What I want is to just turn off Windows Firewall on the client and not the router firewall. This application runs locally on workstations and the SQL db runs on a Windows 2003 memeber server. Also in my case windows firewall wont allow Symantec Endpoint Deployement to new clients.

UMMM......This person didnt ask for any opinions or best practice help. They asked how to disable the firewall. GEEEZZZZ PEOPLE!!!


I understand your trying to guide them in the right way, but I have found situations that Windows Firewall just SUCKS and needs to be disabled.


Disabling the Use of Windows Firewall Across Your Network
If you are already using a third-party host firewall product, then it is recommended that you disable Windows Firewall. If you are not already using a third-party host firewall product, then it is recommended that you enable Windows Firewall to prevent the spread of malicious programs that make it past the firewall that separates your network from the Internet.

If you decide to disable the use of Windows Firewall across your entire organization network, which contains a mixture of computers running Windows XP with SP2, Windows XP with SP1, and Windows XP with no service packs installed, and you are using a third-party host firewall, then you should configure the following Group Policy settings:

Prohibit use of Internet Connection Firewall on your DNS domain network is set to Enabled

Domain profile – Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections is set to Disabled

Standard profile – Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections is set to Disabled

These settings ensure that Windows Firewall is not used, whether the computers are connected to your organization network or not.