aol address book empty sbs 2003 sonicwall device

What model of sonicwall?  What version of firmware?  Enhanced or Standard OS?  Are you licensed for any of the sercurity services?  If you monitor the log on the sonicwall you'll probably going to see what's blocking it.  My guess it's IPS under Security Services.  Try excluding the IP of the device on the LAN within the IPS security service.

Thanks for the questions and the help - it will be a couple of hours before I can confirm the answers and I will look at the log at that time too.

OK...

I have some of the answers.  I realized maybe I should also be looking at Symantec Endpoint Protenction Small Business Edition which we run (unmanaged) on all the PCs here.  Do you know if that's a possible culprit?

Back to the Sonicwall:

NSA 240
SonicOS Enhansed 5.1.1.0-15o

Security Services
selecting Status under System on the left, it shows all security services licensed except CFS and Client AV Enforcement.  Choosing Security Service down near the bottom on the left, I see more detail for what is licensed, etc, so if we need to comb through that, let me know.

I'm going to look at the log for clues now, so you can wait for my next note with information from (or questions about) that, unless there is something to say now.

Thanks

I had SEP crash a Cluster server.  I had to contact SEP support to get best practice for installing SEP.  Support said that I should only install the features which I want to actively manage...like IPS.  If I don't want to use the features, then I need to create a client that doesn't install the features at all.  I've instituted this practice for all my clients and it's worked well.  You can't even disable the services.  The remnants are still installed and will affect the computer.  You have to uninstall it completely.

Regarding the sonicwall, the IPS security service will be your culprit if SEP isn't.  You can either disable IPS on the LAN/WAN zones as a test or add an exclusion for the internal host where AOL is installed within the IPS security service.

Very interesting about SEP.  I don't totally follow what you are saying ("create a client that doesn't install the features..."), but that's a bridge we're not at yet.

I unchecked "Enable IPS" and "Accept"ed, then realized I have to wait for the boss to sign in to his AOL and he's in a meeting.  

The sonicwall log did not seem to indicate intrusion prevention for his computer's IP yesterday when he was in AOL and we were observing the address book problem.  SEP might wind up being the culprit.

Regarding SEP: I didn't catch it the first time, but you indicated SEP was unmanaged.  If you are running SEP as a managed client, then you have the SEP management console.  The console allows you to create a SEP installation client that will install some or all of the SEP features.  If you aren't running the management console, then you could probably click Change for the SEP client within Add/Remove Programs and remove the firewall and IPS features of SEP.

Regarding the sonicwall: You may have to enable increased logging.  Login to the sonicwall and go to Log > Categories.  Make sure logging level is debug.  Then you should see several rows and columns of check boxes.  If you click the top of each column, this will select all the check boxes in the rows and columns.  Then, go back to the log and try to connect to the address book again.

Too many fires flaring today!!  I just wanted to mention that when we install SEP unmanaged, we "x out"  the Network threat/IPS part.  The reseller gave me these guidelines when we upgraded from earlier version.  The boss is meeting clients in his office all day so I can't get in there to be sure that disabling IPS on the sonicwall had no effect.  I'll update what I can confirm as soon as I can.

OK...well, from what you say, SEP isn't the issue.  Of course, there is also the firewall feature of SEP.  Is that not installed as well?

I'm going to uninstall SEP entirely and turn off IPS on the sonicwall.  I'll uninstall AOL 90.5 and reinstall.  If the problem is gone then, I'lll turn IPS back on and see if it is the culprit, and so on.  I'll give you feedback and probably ask more questions based on what I find.  Sorry that I can't move quickly on all this.  Busy time and the boss has to be available because he doesn't want me to have his AOL password.

no worries...will wait for the results.

Still trying to get the boss to focus on this for a minute so I can test

I understand you going along and...oh, pretty butterfly....wait, what was I talking about?

So finally I uninstalled SEP, turned off IPS on the sonicwall, uninstalled and reinstalled AOL 9.5 (I know that probably wasn't worth anything..) The boss signs in and the address book is still empty (well, his buddy list people are there - that's all).  I know from having been at his house a while ago that he isn't lying about the content of his address book in general.

What to you think?

I'm not sure.  It doesn't sound like the sonicwall or SEP.  Review the following links and let me know what you think.

http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=displayKCPopup&docType=kc&externalID=17727

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/22758956/Problem-viewing-AOL-address-book-on-new-computer.html

Appreciate the research.  I'll give this stuff a try and hopefully be able to get point awarded and this out of my life!.

I've learned things I need to know about Sonicwall and SEP.  The General Manager here has convinced the boss to NOT have AOL 9.5 on the office machine so suddenly this is moot.

I marked it as partial so it wouldn't mislead anybody trying to resolve a similar problem in the future.

Thanks for you patience and help.

Sigh...if you could see me, i'd be shaking my head...glad you don't have chase this down any longer and glad I could help.  thanks for the points!