With the imminent public release of the final version XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), users should be aware
of the new Windows Firewall (the replacement for the old Internet Connection Firewall) that is
enabled automatically during installation and upon subsequent startups of the PC. The Windows
Firewall *WILL* block ActiveSync and Connection Manager ports on the PC. If installed correctly, the
firewall should prompt the user if both the Connection Manager and ActiveSync should be UNBLOCKED.
Answer YES to both. If the Windows Firewall does not prompt the user, then the user can manually add
both Connection Manager and ActiveSync to the Windows Firewall Exceptions list. Use the following
paths to configure the firewall...

ActiveSync..

C:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync\WCESMgr.exe

Connection Manager...

C:\Program Files\Microsoft ActiveSync\wcescomm.exe

Additional information concerning the manual configuration of the Windows Firewall can be seen in
this "Cable Guy" article...

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0204.mspx

Additional XP SP2 information...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/overview.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/technologiesoverview.mspx