PLEASE HELP! Disable unknown firewall in OSX!

[MacQuest]

PLEASE HELP! I need to disable unknown firewall software in Mac OSX Panther [10.3.9]!

Everytime I click on the Firewall tab in the Sharing pane of System Preferences I get the foloowing message:
________________________________________________________________

Other firewall software is running on your computer.
(To change the Apple firewall settings, turn off the other firewall software.)
________________________________________________________________

I have administrative privilages, but how can I find out what that other firewall software is so that I can disable it?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[kiwi-in-uk]

I had this happen once or twice when for some reason I turned off the OS X firewall then started Win XP under VPC.

[MacQuest]

I had this happen once or twice when for some reason I turned off the OS X firewall then started Win XP under VPC.

I don't use windows or VPC. I just need to find out what the firewall software that seems to be running in the background is so that I can disable it.

[XNine]

Do you have Norton installed? If so, good luck, it's a pain in the ass getting all of the files associated with it (since most are invisible) and delete.

HAve you looked in ACTIVITY MONITOR yet for the process that's running?

[MacQuest]

Do you have Norton installed? If so, good luck, it's a pain in the ass getting all of the files associated with it (since most are invisible) and delete.

HAve you looked in ACTIVITY MONITOR yet for the process that's running?

No, No, I do not have Norton installed nor have I ever. I looked in Activity Monitor but the problem is that I don't know what I am looking at. Some of the processes that are running are simply named but some are not, and those are the ones that I'm unsure about quitting.

How do I know which one could be a firewall?

[grapes911]

First try a restart.

Second, close all widgets. Close all known programs, safari, mail, etc. Then give us a screenshot of your activity monitor. Maybe we can figure something out.

[MacQuest]

First try a restart.

Second, close all widgets. Close all known programs, safari, mail, etc. Then give us a screenshot of your activity monitor. Maybe we can figure something out.

Okay, will do.

[MacQuest]

Here's the screenshot. Don't mind the window to the far right, that's my goof. All the current processes are on the left.

Thanks for your guys' support! [This stupid firewall thing is KILLING me!]

- MacQuest

[MacQuest]

Here's the ****ng alert I get everytime i click on the firewall tab:

[bousozoku]

Here's the ****ng alert I get everytime i click on the firewall tab:

You need to reset the firewall but unfortunately, I don't exactly remember. It's something to do with ipfw [-f | -q] flush

[grapes911]

I see nothing running that would be a firewall.

type this in the terminal
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist

That will remove the firewall preferences. Maybe it will do the trick.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I remember I had this problem a couple of years ago when I was ehem...testing some software and ran a script to close one port during startup to prevent the software from "phoning home". Then when I tried to enable OS X' firewall I got that exact same message. Soon got rid of both software and script... ;)

Have you installed any third party stuff that might close ports (not necessarily any scenario close to the one I describe above, there are countless entirely legal programs out there that will close one or more ports). The software doesn't even have to be running, the port(s) might be closed during startup by a script or even a single command.

[bousozoku]

I see nothing running that would be a firewall.

type this in the terminal
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist

That will remove the firewall preferences. Maybe it will do the trick.

I had the same problem when I updated to Jaguar. Flushing the status through the ipfw command did the trick but I don't have that certain shell script that I saved since I can't get to that disk drive.

[grapes911]

I had the same problem when I updated to Jaguar. Flushing the status through the ipfw command did the trick but I don't have that certain shell script that I saved since I can't get to that disk drive.

That's easy. The command would be:
ipfw flush

EDIT: actually I think you need root access to do this. Type this in the terminal instead and enter your password when asked:
sudo ipfw flush

[MacQuest]

That's easy. The command would be:
ipfw flush

EDIT: actually I think you need root access to do this. Type this in the terminal instead and enter your password when asked:
sudo ipfw flush

WHOOPEE! I could cyber-kiss you... if I were cyber-gay. But I don't "swing" that way, or anyway, when it comes to being gay.

I'm a poet and didn't know it!

THANKS ALL!!!

[grapes911]

You may be thanking me, but you got to give bousozoku an assist. It was his idea, I just told you how to do it. Anyway, glad you got it to work.

[bousozoku]

You may be thanking me, but you got to give bousozoku an assist. It was his idea, I just told you how to do it. Anyway, glad you got it to work.

We Philly-area people gotta stick together. :D I'm glad my bad experience years ago could help someone else today.

[MacQuest]

We Philly-area people gotta stick together. :D I'm glad my bad experience years ago could help someone else today.

THANKS bousozuku!!!

I hope you have many more bad experiences that you can help me with in the future!

Wait a minute... that's not nice.

:D

[bousozoku]

THANKS bousozuku!!!

I hope you have many more bad experiences that you can help me with in the future!

Wait a minute... that's not nice.

:D

I'm sure that I do. Mac OS X is almost as much of a pain as it is a treasure. :D

I'm glad things worked out for u. That error drove me to re-install the operating system, only to find out about 3 hours after that that there was an easy fix.