How to open/close ports in Windows 7 Firewall

 I've posted about the types of firewalls in my previous post. To know about the types of firewalls, Go here

Let us see how we can open ports on windows firewall.

In this post I wanna share how to open / close ports in Windows7. In my next 

Step 1 - Go to control panel, Click on windows firewall. Click on Advanced settings.

Step 2 - On the left side you will see two options , Inbound rules and outbound rules.

Step 3 - In order to open a port, Right click on Inbound rules and create new rule.

Step 4 - Select "Port" and click next

Step 5 - Now Choose the port type as either TCP or UDP and choose a port number. For example chose UDP and port number 12345.

Step 6 - Now choose connectivity type. It is recommended that you select all three options so that the port appears open even when you are not connected to any public network.

Step 7 - Now give a name to your rule. Click next to finish the process. You will notice that your newely created rule is now added in the rule list.

Step 8 - So your port is now open to receive connections. Right click on the rule and clicking on Delete will delete the rule and thus close the port.

But what to do after the port is open. Let us try to run a service over it.

Step 9 - Suppose you want to run a service on the port you just opened then the process is simple. Right click on the newely created rule, click on properties, then go to "Programs and services" tab.

Step 10 - You will have an option to add a service to the perticular open port.

Logs :

There is another important thing that security professionals will find helpful is viewing the firewall log file. It is an asset to determine network activities.

To view and configure firewall log file, open firewall, click on advanced settings, choose "monitoring".In the middle pane you will find an option of "logging" .

You can find your firewall log file and also other configurations there.

Note : If you are unclear and want me to provide screen shots, please let me know through your valuable comments.

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