HOW TO: Audit the Windows XP firewall
As a value-added reseller (VAR) or service provider, you may find yourself configuring a customer’s Windows XP firewall. As I explain in the first two articles in this series on firewall troubleshooting, the settings that control the Windows firewall are hierarchical in nature, and a higher-priority setting may override a setting that you implement.
One way to ensure that the firewall is operating as you intended is to audit it. In this article, I show you how to audit the Windows XP firewall. To begin the process of creating a firewall log, open the Control Panel and click on the Security Center link. When the Security Center window opens, click the Windows Firewall link. Windows will open the Windows Firewall properties sheet. Now, select the properties sheet’s Advanced tab, and then click the Settings button that’s found in the Security Logging section, as shown in Figure A. How to audit the Windows XP firewall