Windows 8 Bible

Advanced Firewall Configuration

The rest of this chapter goes well beyond anything that would concern the average home computer user. It’s for more advanced users and network and security administrators who might need to configure Windows Firewall to comply with an organization’s security policy. All these options require administrative privileges. We don’t go into great detail on what the various options mean because we assume you are working to comply with an existing policy.

Caution

If you’re not a professional administrator, it’s best to stay out of this area altogether. You certainly don’t want to guess and hack your way through things just to see what happens. Doing so could alter the Windows Firewall configuration such that it is wrong, causing you not to be able to connect to the Internet at all, or leaving you exposed to outside attacks by hackers.

Open Windows Firewall With Advanced Security

To get to the advanced configuration options for Windows Firewall, first open Windows Firewall from the System And Security item in the Control Panel. Then click the Advanced Settings link in the left pane. The firewall console, shown in Figure 9.8, opens.

FIGURE 9.8 Windows Firewall With Advanced Security console

As you can see in the figure, you have three independently configurable profiles to work with:

• Domain Profile: This is active when the computer is logged in to ...