How to manually set the Windows XP Professional Sp2 Firewall to allow ping responses

1. Click on Start, then Settings, and open the Control Panel.
2. From the Control Panel, click on the Security Center icon.
3. From the Security Center, double click on the Windows Firewall icon.
4. Click on the Advanced tab at the top.
5. Click on the Settings button next to ICMP.
6. Click on the checkbox next to "Allow incoming echo request".

This is the only required setting. However, we also enable the following options for enhanced performance on the campus network.

• Allow outgoing destination unreachable
• Allow outgoing source quench
• Allow outgoing parameter problem
• Allow outgoing packet too big
7. Click on OK to save the settings, then click on OK to close the Windows Firewall control panel.

The new settings will take effect after the computer has been restarted.

Registry file to automatically enable ICMP replies in Windows XP Professional SP2's firewall

If you also use on your computer on a network running Microsoft's Active Directory system, you may not want to use this .reg file because of the disabledynamicupdate setting. Please download the file here.

This file will set the following registry entries in your XP Sp2 firewall properties to true:

• AllowInboundEchoRequest
• AllowOutboundDestinationUnreachable
• AllowOutboundPacketTooBig
• AllowOutboundParameterProblem
• AllowOutboundSourceQuench

The following entry is also changed in TCP/IP properties, but is not firewall related:

• DisableDynamicUpdate

How to use this file

If you've saved the .reg file to your Windows desktop, double click on the file to run it. Windows will display a confirmation box similar to the following screen:

Click on the Yes button to import the registry settings into your computer. You will need to restart your computer before the settings will be in effect.

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Last updated: Oct 18, 2005 (02:54:46 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.clasnet.ufl.edu/computers/self-maintained/xppingreg.shtml