Is there any way to prevent the firewall warning in SBS 2008 (short of turning the firewall on). We use a hardware firewall - and thus would prefer not to use the Windows firewall at all.

you can use group policies:Expand the Computer Configuration folder, then the Administrative Templates folder. Expand the Network folder, then the Network Connections folder, then the Windows Firewall folder. Select the Standard Profile folder. Double-click the Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections option. Select Disabled, then click OK. Select the Domain Profile folder. Double-click the Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections option. Select Disabled, then click OK. and if this fails you can try disabling the firewall through the register (export a copy of your register first!) In order to turn off the Windows Firewall in the Registry Editor, the correct key must be amended. Go to Start > Run and type regedit at the insertion point. In the Registry Editor, go to Edit > Find and paste the following path (Windows XP SP3) then click OK HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile The Reg_DWORD value EnableFirewall can be edited, with an amendment to the Value Data setting of 0. By changing this to 1, the Windows Firewall will be disabled. For Windows XP SP2, the Reg_DWORD value EnableFirewall can be accessed via the following registry entries, depending upon your environment: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall\StandardProfiles HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall\DomainProfiles Again as with the Service Pack 3 solution, the Value Data setting of 0 should be changed to 1 in the Reg_DWORD value EnableFirewall.source: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/windows-platform/articles/36282.aspx My certificates: https://www.mcpvirtualbusinesscard.com/Profile.aspx?ID=2251ddfe-3d9f-41dc-af62-a512ca5888b6

I used a GPO to turn off the firewall on everything already. I'm just tired of seeing a red x in the SBS Console because the firewall is turned off. I know in XP there is a setting to prevent security center from reporting an error because of a disabled firewall. I am hoping there is something similar in SBS 2008?

Hi, For SBS 2008 issues, please discuss them in our SBS 2008 newsgroup: https://connect.microsoft.com/SBS08/community/discussion/richui/default.aspx Tim Quan - MSFT

1. On the SBS 2008 server, navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows Small Business Server\Data \SHExtensions. 2. Find the a file named WindowsFirewall.xml. Move this file to another backup location, or rename it as WindowsFirewall.old. 3. Restart the SBS console to check the result. " I renamed it as WindowsFirewall.old and restarted SBS Console ... and it was fixed.