I use NIS 2009 with Windows XP. I'm using the default of automatic program control.
Tonight I glanced at the program rules for the first time in two or three weeks, and I see that about five new ones have since appeared -- all allowing internet access to the program.
What's odd is that there is nothing in the log about their creation. These include Microsoft Help Center Hosting Services (c:\windows\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\helphost.exe) and Microsoft Office 2003 Component (c:\program files\microsoft office\ofice11\1033\msohelp.exe). But I thought new automatic program rule creation was always logged??
What I *did* see in the log was a bunch of rule-creation entries that are are least four weeks old, and they all are phrased, "you created firewall rules to manage how <program> accesses your network resources." They are all shown as Status: Custom. (Fyi, it says "you created" even for rules I had no hand in creating or modifying, but based on an earlier discussion that part doesn't concern me.) And remember, these are all older, i.e., none are for those five programs I spotted brand new rules for tonight, including the two mentioned above.
Can someone help me figure out why there were no log entries for the new program rules? Does this suggest a problem?
And there's another related issue I don't understand: In addition to the older rule-creation logging, I found one -- and only one -- rule creation log entry, dated just yesterday, for a program that was already in the list. Unlike the older log entries I described. this one is instead worded, "Firewall rules were automatically created for <program>." And it indicates Status: Protected (instead of Custom). Funny thing is, that phrasing ("were automatically created for") sounds very familiar to me, but as I said this the only such entry I can currently find of this type. I wonder what, if anything, this discrepancy suggests?
Would appreciate any guidance on these "mysteries."