XP SP2 Firewall Not Working

[Dilbert]

I am trying to install SP3 but it is freezing my pc and I am not able to boot in the safe mode as well. So, after taking it off from my computer, the firewall is now working anymore and I am not able to reinstall it as well. I have already tried to follow the intructions given on the microsoft site as well as the winsock reset but nothing is working for me. I also get an error message if I try to reinstall it "This application has failed to start because dot3api.dll was not found. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem." Can anyone please help

[.:MUNDITO:.]

Can you check by registering the dot3api.dll can solve the issue for you. For doing the same, you need to click on Start and then Run and then type the following - regsvr32 dot3api.dll and then click OK or press enter. If that doesnt work then try to first enable all hidden files to show up in your pc and then in the WINDOWS\system32 you will see dot3api.dll that could be found. After that right click on it and choose Properties and then click version tab to confirm if it is 5.1.2600.5512 or not.

[Pratim]

Even I am facing the same issue and I have already spend 2-3 hours on the phone with Microsoft technical guys just to get my machine to work again properly. Whatever I do the firewall wont work although the network system is still working without any issues? Can anyone please help me out. Thanks in advance

[Viceman]

To install Windows Firewall, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type the following command line, and then press ENTER:
   Rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection Ndi-Steelhead 132 %windir%\inf\netrass.inf
3. Restart Windows,
4. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
5. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
   Netsh firewall reset
6. Click Start, click Run, type firewall.cpl, and then press ENTER. In the Windows Firewall dialog box, click On (recommended), and then click OK.

More information can be found here - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920074/en-us