windows firewall stopped working, need a fix!

I have Windows XP SP2, it seems my windows firewall has been disabled. When I try to go to the firewall settings for my network connection, it says "Windows firewall settings cannot be displayed since Windows Firewall / Internet connection sharing service is not running. Do you want to start it?" When I click yes, it says that it cannot start the service. This doesn't seem to be an uncommon problem as I have found a lot of people having the same problem on other forums but none of the solutions mentioned works for me. Anybody here have a fix for this?

start-->run-->type services.mscsee if windows firewall service is set to automatic startup .. right click go to properties-->dependencies u can see that firewall service depends on network connections service as well as wmi service so make sure both are set to automatic startup ..

for windows firewall to runu need these services to be runningmake these also automatic in services mmc Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)Network Location Awareness (NLA)Application Layer Gateway Serviceand if ur network is up then ur network service also need to be running also wmi service just like power said above

I have already checked that. All the services required for the firewall are running.