Disable Windows 2008 Firewall

Using gpedit.msc...

Group Policy Setting for Disabling Windows Firewall
Administrative Templates\Network\Network Connections\Windows Firewall.

To disable Windows Firewall in a domain environment, the Group Policy setting you would use is located in Computer Configuration under Policies (if present), in Administrative Templates\Network\Network Connections\Windows Firewall\Domain Profile. The setting is called Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections. If you disable this policy setting, Windows Firewall does not filter or block any network traffic.

Update: from an administrative command line, you can run:

"netsh advfirewall set profiles state off "

where profiles is AllProfiles, CurrentProfile, DomainProfile, PrivateProfile, or PublicProfile.

Reference:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771032(WS.10).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766337(v=ws.10).aspx