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RE: Tuning Vista's Firewall

Jason — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:09:25 GMT

[quote][b]Opteronguy (1/30/2008)[/b][hr][quote][b]Jason (2/6/2007)[/b][hr]Out of the box Vista's firewall looks like a regular xp port over. When in reality it now check both incoming and outgoing packets unlike xp. [b]By default all incoming packets are allowed since no default rules are set.[/b] To change this go to your run command type "mmc" and go to "file" > "add snap in" and find "advanced windows firewall settings". Go ahead and add this now you can naviate all your rules for both incoming and outgoing traffic. Enjoy![/quote]

This seems dumb to me and goes against what a firewall is all about. Shouldn't it BLOCK all incoming packets by default? The exception to this is if the PC has initiated a connection outbound, in which the firewall has a port opened to allow the connection out and thus traffic will be allowed back in since the PC will be awaiting a response.

That is unless it really doesn't do what you mentioned here and does in fact act like an SPI firewall.[/quote]

No, you certainly don't want all inbound connections blocked. You will lost lots of functionality especially when it comes to interfacing with other devices on your network. If you have 1 computer in your whole house you may be able to do this but I don't recommend it. BTW- I don't think Vista's firewall is smart enough to know that you initiated an outbound connection, and therefore allow the proceeding inbound to come in. It just uses ACL's to allow and disallow activity on certain ports. So basically if you block all inbound connections even if you try to browse the web anything sent back to your computer from a webserver will be blocked..meaing no internet.

RE: Tuning Vista's Firewall

Opteronguy — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:24:05 GMT

[quote][b]Jason (2/6/2007)[/b][hr]Out of the box Vista's firewall looks like a regular xp port over. When in reality it now check both incoming and outgoing packets unlike xp. [b]By default all incoming packets are allowed since no default rules are set.[/b] To change this go to your run command type "mmc" and go to "file" > "add snap in" and find "advanced windows firewall settings". Go ahead and add this now you can naviate all your rules for both incoming and outgoing traffic. Enjoy![/quote]

This seems dumb to me and goes against what a firewall is all about. Shouldn't it BLOCK all incoming packets by default? The exception to this is if the PC has initiated a connection outbound, in which the firewall has a port opened to allow the connection out and thus traffic will be allowed back in since the PC will be awaiting a response.

That is unless it really doesn't do what you mentioned here and does in fact act like an SPI firewall.

RE: Tuning Vista's Firewall

stevehaz_uk — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 03:54:10 GMT

Could also try the free version of Vista FW Control from Sphinx Software, which offers application control to the Vista FW in both x32 and x64 versions.

RE: Tuning Vista's Firewall

astala"vista" — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:50:55 GMT

To know more about what are possible with Vista Firewall,

[i]Start-->Administrative Tools-->Local Security Policy-->Windows Firewall with Advanced Security[/i]

You can write inbound and outbound rules. For me it seems that the Vista firewall is better than XP SP2 Firewall :)

RE: Tuning Vista's Firewall

Gale — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 23:33:01 GMT

How does Vista map Firewall Rules to Exceptions ? On enabling/disabling one Exception, the status of multiple rules gets changed.

Where are details about Exceptions stored? Are they stored [b]distinct [/b]from Firewall Rules in the registry?

From where can I retrieve basic firewall Configuration info as can be seen in the [b]Control Panel > Windows Firewall[/b] interface or using the [b]netsh firewall context[/b] to list Program Exceptions?

RE: Tuning Vista's Firewall

Bistro — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 07:47:42 GMT

Most excellent! Thanks!

RE: Tuning Vista's Firewall

w59cb83x — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:21:05 GMT

Thanks for the tip!

Tuning Vista's Firewall

Jason — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:51:40 GMT

Out of the box Vista's firewall looks like a regular xp port over. When in reality it now check both incoming and outgoing packets unlike xp. By default all incoming packets are allowed since no default rules are set. To change this go to your run command type "mmc" and go to "file" > "add snap in" and find "advanced windows firewall settings". Go ahead and add this now you can naviate all your rules for both incoming and outgoing traffic. Enjoy!