Turn File and Print Sharing on with Windows Firewall Off

I have a Windows 2008 Server R2 that has a fax server on it. This server is NOT on a domain but WORKGROUP. The server has no firewall. The fax server is used for a critical application.

Problem: I would like to SHARE the FAX server to a couple users on a domain.

I can go to Control Panel | Hardware | Devices and Printers and try to share the fax, but I get an error (0x000006D9). From Microsoft KB I must have the Windows Firewall Service enabled.

• Is there a way to share a printer/fax without the Firewall ON? I can try turning the firewall on and then sharing the fax, and then turning off the firewall. But not sure what will happen.
• Or is there a way to access the fax server remotely without using a share?

I can not leave the firewall on. There is way to many applications running on it and other servers connecting remotely and probably turn into a huge headache getting everything running again. Which is why my predecessor left the firewall off and not on the domain with windows updates off for the last 2 years... Egads...

If you must not have the firewall "on", you can work around this by setting it to allow incoming traffic by default instead of blocking.

Windows Firewall is basically embedded in Windows core networking components and needs to be enabled for a majority of things (sharing, for example) to work properly. Either set it to allow all by default or put in a rule to allow all traffic and bypass the block anyway. Either way, you must have it enabled.