cFP-2020 Communication through Windows Firewall

[Lost And Found]

For the past few days I've been unable to communicate with my newly-shipped cFP-2020 unit. Today I finally figured out the problem, the laptop which I was using to communicate with the unit had Windows Firewall enabled (as is default on almost all laptops). Disabling the firewall allowed me to detect the unit in MAX and configure it.

However, the laptop belongs to my group-mate who's not too used to playing around much with the settings on her laptop, thus I don't want to have to ask her to turn the firewall on every time she leaves the lab and off whenever we're configuring the cFP-2020. Therefore, I'd like to know exactly what ports/protocols I need to open/enable in order to communicate fully with the cFP-2020.

Incidentally, another friend of mine is using the CVS-1455, which had no problems communicating through the Windows Firewall. Am unsure of why there's a difference, but would appreciate any comments on this, just as a point of interest.

Perhaps it might be better for the cFP-2020 manual to include instructions to check the firewall settings when attempting to communicate with the cFP-2020, because it certainly would have helped me a lot.

[bob_miller]

My cFP2020 arrived with an insert flier alerting me to Windows Firewall. In fact
I think I read several times "turn off your firewall". So I think NI is trying to alert
us. On the other hand, they don't offer information on how to configure the firewall.
And at this point I use a Symantec firewall which I have configured to let all of my
fieldpoint communication work and windows firewall is diabled.

The windows firewall config page is at Control Panel>>Security Center >> Windows Firewall.

Right off the bat I would make sure on the general tab the "dont allow exceptions" box
is unchecked. That way as you try to communicate, you will be notified what the firewall
is blocking and therefore know what to add to the exceptions.

On the Exceptions tab make sure "LabVIEW 7.1 Development System" (or whatever  version)
is allowed, as is "Measurement and Automation". If you run a deployed LV application, make
sure that is allowed, as well. If you do this, you may not have to know precisely what ports
you are communicating on (and some LV applications will pull port numbers out of the air).

I know this is not a complete  help response, but I hope it is a start

Bob