The easiest way to reset Windows 10 firewall rules to initial defaults is from Control Panel with item Windows Firewall.To open the snap, press Win + R and run the command firewall.cpl, or press Win + X and follow to Control Panel- Windows Firewall. Click the Restore Defaults item in the left pane. In a new window click on Restore Defaults button. (The Local Host and IP Address settings are found in the File/Setup/LocalInfo menu.) Typically in the case that your IP Address is not correctly set, the other party will get your dcc message and then try to confirm and connect to your incorrect IP Address.
In Windows 10, the Windows Firewall hasn’t changed very much since Vista. Overall, it’s pretty much the same. Inbound connections to programs are blocked unless they are on the allowed list. Outbound connections are not blocked if they do not match a rule. You also have a Public and Private network profile for the firewall and can control exactly which program can communicate on the private network as opposed to the Internet.
In this article, I’ll go through the various options and settings for the Windows 10 firewall and talk about how you can adjust them to suit your needs. Even though outbound connections are not blocked by default, you can configure your own firewall rules in Windows 10 to block outbound connections. This can be useful if you want to block a specific program from being able to communicate with the Internet, even if the program gets installed without your consent.
To get started, let’s talk about how to bring up the firewall settings in Windows 10. You can either open the Control Panel and open the firewall from there or you can click on Start and type in the word firewall.
This will bring up the Windows Firewall dialog where you can control all of the various settings for the firewall.
On the right hand side, it splits the view into Private networks and Guest or public networks. Your home wireless network should show up under Private networks, but if it doesn’t, then you will probably have to manually tell it that the network is a Home network and not a Public network.
Allow Program through Firewall
The main reason most people will ever mess with the firewall is to allow a program to work through the firewall. Normally, this is automatically done by the program itself, but in some cases, you have to do it manually. You can do this by clicking on Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall.
As you can see, for each program or feature of Windows, you can choose to allow incoming connections on the private and public networks separately. This separation is handy for things like File and PrinterSharing and HomeGroups since we don’t want someone from public WiFi to be able to connect to a network share or a local HomeGroup. To allow an app, simply find it in the list and then check the box for which type of network you want to allow incoming connections on.
If the app is not listed, you can click on the Allow another app button and pick from a list or click the Browse button to find your program specifically. If the button is greyed out, click on Change settings first.
If you go back to the Firewall home dialog, there is another link on the left-hand pane called Turn Windows Firewall On or Off. If you click on that, you’ll get a set of options like shown below:
You can turn off the firewall in Windows 10 entirely, but that will allow everything through the firewall. You can also block all incoming connections to your computer, even for allowed apps, which is useful in certain situations. For example, if you are in a public setting like a hotel or airport and you want to be extra safe while connected to the network. You can still browse the Internet using a web browser, but no program will be able to create an incoming connection from another computer on the local network or from a server on the Internet.
Advanced Firewall Settings
The real fun, though, is if you want to mess around with the advanced firewall settings. This is obviously not for the faint of heart, but it’s also not a big deal because you can click the Restore Defaults link and set everything back to the way it was when you first installed Windows 10. To get to the advanced settings, click the Advanced settings link in the left-hand pane on the firewall main dialog. This will bring up the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security window:
On the main screen, it gives you a quick overview of your firewall settings for the domain, private networks, and public networks. If your computer is not joined to a domain, you don’t have to worry about that profile. You can quickly see how inbound and outbound connections are managed by the firewall. By default, all outbound connections are allowed. If you want to block an outbound connection, click on Outbound Rules in the left-hand column.
Go ahead and click on New Rule and then you’ll get a dialog asking what type of rule.
I chose port because I want to block all outgoing connections on port 80, the HTTP port used by every web browser. In theory, this should block all Internet access in IE, Edge, Chrome and other browsers. Click Next, select TCP and type in the port number.
Click Next and choose the action you want to perform, in my case, Block the connection.
Finally, choose which profiles you want the rule to apply too. It’s probably a good idea to just pick all the profiles.
Now just give it a name and that’s it! When I open Chrome to visit any webpage, I get the following error message:
Sweet! So I just created a new outbound connection rule in Windows 10 firewall that blocks port 80 and therefore prevents anyone from browsing the Internet! You can create your own custom firewall rules in Windows 10 following the steps I showed above. Overall, that’s pretty much all there is to the firewall. You can do more advanced stuff, but I wanted to give a decent overview that even non-technical people can try to follow.
If you have any questions about configuring the firewall in Windows 10, post a comment here and we’ll try to help. Enjoy!
Firewalls can be absolutely infuriating and Windows 10 Firewall is no exception. may have a program that has worked for a hundred years on all sorts of computers, but the minute you install it on a Windows 10 machine with Windows Firewall in action, it just stops working, for absolutely no apparent reason. Luckily, you can change the Windows 10 Firewall to allow your favorite programs.
You can get mad at Microsoft and scream at Windows 10 Firewall, but when you do, realize that at least part of the problem lies in the way the firewall has to work. It has to block packets that are trying to get in, unless you explicitly tell the firewall to allow them to get in.
Perhaps most infuriatingly, Windows Firewall blocks those packets by simply swallowing them, not by notifying the computer that sent the packet. Windows Firewall has to remain stealthy because if it sends back a packet that says, “Hey, I got your packet, but I can’t let it through,” the bad guys get an acknowledgment that your computer exists, they can probably figure out which firewall you’re using, and they may be able to combine those two pieces of information to give you a headache. It’s far better for Windows Firewall to act like a black hole.
Some programs need to listen to incoming traffic from the Internet; they wait until they’re contacted and then respond. Usually, you know whether you have this type of program because the installer tells you that you need to tell your firewall to back off.
If you have a program that doesn’t (or can’t) poke its own hole through Windows Firewall, you can tell WF to allow packets destined for that specific program — and only that program — in through the firewall. You may want to do that with a game that needs to accept incoming traffic, for example, or for an Outlook extender program that interacts with mobile phones.
To poke a hole in the inbound Windows 10 Firewall for a specific program:
Make sure that the program you want to allow through Firewall is installed.
In the search box, next to the Start button, type firewall. Choose Allow an App through Windows Firewall.
Windows Firewall presents you with a lengthy list of programs that you may want to allow: If a box is selected, Windows Firewall allows unsolicited incoming packets of data directed to that program and that program alone, and the column tells you whether the connection is allowed for private or public connections.
These settings don’t apply to incoming packets of data that are received in response to a request from your computer; they apply only when a packet of data appears on your firewall’s doorstep without an invitation.
In the image above, the tiled Weather app is allowed to receive inbound packets whether you’re connected to a private or public network. Windows Media Player, on the other hand, may accept unsolicited inbound data from other computers only if you’re connected to a private network: If you’re attached to a public network, inbound packets headed for Windows Media Player are swallowed by the WF Black Hole (patent pending).
Do one of the following:
If you can find the program that you want to poke through the firewall listed in the Allow Programs list, select the check boxes that correspond to whether you want to allow the unsolicited incoming data when connected to a home or work network and whether you want to allow the incoming packets when connected to a public network. It’s rare indeed that you’d allow access when connected to a public network but not to a home or work network.
If you can’t find the program that you want to poke through the firewall, you need to go out and look for it. Tap or click the Change Settings button at the top, and then tap or click the Allow Another App button at the bottom. You have to tap or click the Change Settings button first and then tap or click Allow Another Program. It’s kind of a double-down protection feature that ensures you don’t accidentally change things.
Windows Firewall goes out to all common program locations and finally presents you with the Whack a Mol … er, Add an App list like the one shown here. It can take a while.
Choose the program you want to add, and then tap or click the Add button.
Realize that you’re opening a potential, albeit small, security hole. The program you choose had better be quite capable of handling packets from unknown sources. If you authorize a renegade program to accept incoming packets, the bad program could let the fox into the chicken coop.
You return to the Windows Firewall Allowed Apps list, and your newly selected program is now available.
Select the check boxes to allow your poked-through program to accept incoming data while you’re connected to a private or a public network. Then tap or click OK.
Your poked-through program can immediately start handling inbound data.
In many cases, poking through Windows Firewall doesn’t solve the whole problem. You may have to poke through your modem or router as well — unsolicited packets that arrive at the router may get kicked back according to the router’s rules, even if Windows would allow them in. Unfortunately, each router and the method for poking holes in the router’s inbound firewall differ. Check Portforward.com for an enormous amount of information about poking through routers.