Problem Accessing the Internet

Hello All,

Last night I tried to access the internet via AOL and kept getting a message that AOL detected a firewall and could not connect. I do have the McAfee Personal Firewall but full access to all AOL components have been and still are granted. I checked my programs and sure enough the Windows SP2 hotfix was there (I thought I had the automatic updates turned off).

I called AOL and they told me that SP2 includes a Windows firewall but we could not detect it using the code they provided. Finally, AOL told me my Remote Access Auto Connection Manager was damaged and I needed to call my computer manufacturer. Today, I manually started the Connection Manager and was able to get online ,so I'm thinking that something is stopping the Connection Manager from automatically starting but have no idea what. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Thanks,
MsFoxy

I haven't installed SP2 yet, but by default the Windows XP firewall is enabled. I'm going to assume that when you install SP2 that is also re-enabled by default even if you had turned it off before. You may need to turn it off again.

I'm not familiar with the Connection Manager, but if it's a service, make sure it is set to auto and not manual so it automatically starts when you boot.

in my opinion try to go to Administrative tools and check the services that you use and if it network or telephony, then try to start it.

I assume by Remote Access Connection Manager and your starting it manually that you are referring to the XP service. Check that it's set to start automatically and also check the items it depends on, make sure none of them are disabled, they should be set to start automatically.
Here are its dependencies:
Telephony
Plug and Play
Remote Procedure Call

Good Luck

Alkatr0z

Thanks to all that responded, much appreciated. I have gone in and changed those XP services to automatic. Hopefully, this will take care of the problem!

MaFoxy