Parsing Windows Vista Firewall settings

Firewall can help prevent hackers or malware from accessing your computer over the Internet, and audit outbound connections. By default, Vista will automatically enable Windows Firewall, the firewall is more powerful than Windows XP. Let's take a look at this knowledge.

I. Windows Firewall

In the Windows Vista Firewall control panel window, you can see that the Windows Firewall has been enabled and a notification is displayed when it is set as a blocking program. The network location is "Private Network ", if you need to change the settings, click the "change settings" button, and the setting window opens. You can change the settings as needed:

1. General

You can set whether to temporarily disable firewall protection. If you want the firewall to block all programs, check the "block all incoming connections" check box, this setting is useful when connecting to the public network of an airport or hotel. Of course, you can still browse most web pages, send and receive emails, send and receive instant messages.

2. Exceptions

You can add an exception control program that allows communication through the firewall. Several "exception" projects are automatically set here. To add a new project, click "add program, click the Browse button to specify the program to be added. By default, the added program can be used on any computer. If you need to apply appropriate restrictions, click "change range, select "My Network (subnet) only (M)" or "custom list" here ". After the setting is complete, click "OK" twice to return to the "exceptions" tab.

3. Advanced

If multiple network connections are set on your computer, you can select a connection to be protected by Windows Firewall on the "advanced" tab, and cancel the check box before "Local Connection. If you want to restore the firewall rules of the inbound connection to the initial installation status, click "Restore to default" here. A prompt box is displayed, which will take effect after confirmation.

How to make the firewall smarter: Press Win + R to open the running dialog box and enter gpedit. msc, go to the Group Policy object Editor, expand to Computer Configuration → manage template → Windows Components → Windows Defender, and double-click "enable the correct detection of known records" in the right pane ", select "enabled" to enable Windows Defender to detect known and correct files. Windows Firewall enables record detection data during real-time protection. Next, double-click again to open the "enable record unknown detection" dialog box and set it to "enabled ".

Ii. enable advanced firewall

We have mentioned Windows Firewall, but it is just a simple firewall, which can be called "border firewall". For users with higher security requirements, i'm afraid this firewall is far from meeting their needs. In fact, Vista also provides us with an advanced security Windows Firewall, which is a "state firewall". After it is enabled, it checks and selects IP version 4 (IPv4) by default, incoming traffic is blocked for all data packets of IP version 6 (IPV6) traffic, unless it is a response to the host request, you can also request or require computers to authenticate each other before communication, data integrity or encryption is used for communication.

Since it is an advanced security Windows Firewall, it is naturally impossible for common users to use it. You will find that this component is not found in the Start Menu or control panel, the correct method is to press the "Win + R" key combination to open the run dialog box, enter "mmc" here to enter the console window, and execute "Add/delete Management Unit" from the File menu ", or press Ctrl + M. In the displayed dialog box, find advanced security Windows Firewall, select Advanced Security Windows Firewall, and click Add in the middle, or double-click it. A dialog box is displayed. For example, select "Local Computer (computer running this console)" and click "finish" in the lower right corner.

Return to the main interface and expand "Advanced Security Windows Firewall on the Local Computer". Alternatively, you can enter "firewall" in the "Start search" box in the "Start" menu ", click "Advanced Security Windows Firewall" in the search result bar to enter the management unit window. This is a very familiar MMC 3.0 window, which consists of three tabs:

Console tree: function category, which can be further expanded.

Details pane: lists the details of each function category and its branches. "dedicated configuration file is active" indicates that the network currently connected is a "dedicated" network.

Operation Pane: You can perform specific operations on each function category and its branches.
3. Configure advanced firewall

Windows Vista has three firewall configuration files: domain configuration file, dedicated configuration file, and public configuration file. In this way, we can select the corresponding configuration based on different network locations, this gives you more options.

Right-click "Advanced Security Windows Firewall on the Local Computer" and open the Properties window from the shortcut menu. Three different firewall configuration files are provided here. Please select as needed:

Domain Configuration File: the behavior of a computer connecting to the network of its account.

Dedicated configuration file: when a computer is connected to a network that does not include its domain account, such as a home network.

Public configuration file: because the public network connected to the computer cannot strictly control the security as in the IE environment, in this sense, the public configuration file settings should be the strictest.

By default, the configuration files of the three firewalls mentioned above allow outbound connections and Block inbound connections. If the configuration file settings are not changed, the default value will be applied as long as Windows Firewall with advanced security uses these configuration files. If possible, we recommend that you select "enable" for all. Of course, you can use "Custom" to control Windows Firewall behaviors. The specific options are not described here, if you are interested, you can view related technical documents or help files.

Iv. firewall setting instances

By default, Windows Firewall blocks all inbound connections and allows all outbound connections by default. To prevent Windows Live Messenger from logging on to the server, follow these steps.

Step 2: locate "outbound rules" in the left-side console tree ".

Step 2: Click new rule in the Action pane on the right. The new Outbound Rule wizard dialog box is displayed, and select program ", click "Next" to continue.

Step 2: Select "this program path", click the "Browse" button next to it, specify the path of Windows Live Messenger, and click "Next" to continue.

Step 2: Next, the rule Wizard will ask about the Operations selected when the specified conditions are met. Select "block connection" and click "Next" to continue.

Step 2: select the configuration file. You can select either of the three network locations, including domain, private, and public.

Step 2: specify the name and description of the rule. Just write it and click "finish.

Now, if we run Windows Live Messenger again, an error message indicating that the user cannot log on will appear during logon.

Click the "Troubleshooting" button. The software executes the error diagnosis. The final result is of course related to the firewall.

Select "monitoring" in the left-side console tree. You can view the monitoring settings in the "details pane" in the middle, for example, when a program is blocked, the notification, local firewall rules, and local connection security rules are all applied.