Windows Vista Security: Praxisorientierte Sicherheit für Profis

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Chapter 17: Mastering Dial-Up, Broadband, and On-the-Go Networking

Enabling and Disabling Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall helps prevent hackers and malicious programs from gaining

access to your computer. The firewall blocks access to your computer through net-

work or Internet connections. The firewall can also block packets being sent by your

computer, helping to protect others from malicious content on your computer, such

as a virus or worm. The firewall is essential to help protect your computer and your

data, and you will want to enable it.

If you enable Windows Firewall, make sure you do not run other software firewalls

on your computer, as it takes considerable effort to troubleshoot networking issues

when you have multiple firewalls enabled on your computer. If you are using an

Ethernet router, you should enable the firewall on the router as well, as this will also

help block attacks against your computer. While no firewall has the capability to

stop all harmful attacks against your computer, it is well worth the time to configure

Windows Firewall and any firewall that may be available on your Ethernet router.

Windows Vista offers you the ability to configure the options of the Windows Fire-

wall feature by giving you an easy-to-use interface. You can determine the status of

Windows Firewall by following these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. In the Control Panel, click the Net-

work and Internet heading and then click Windows Firewall.

2. As shown in Figure 17-17, you’ll see a summary of the firewall status and config-

uration. To change the firewall settings, click “Change settings.”

3. In the Windows Firewall Settings dialog box, you can then use the option on the

General tab to turn the firewall on or off. To turn the firewall on, click “On (rec-

ommended).” This setting allows the firewall to block incoming connections. To

turn the firewall off, click “Off (not recommended).” This setting turns the fire-

wall off and makes your computer vulnerable to remote attacks through net-

work and Internet connections.

4. When you are connecting to networks that are less secure, you may want to

block all incoming connections to your computer. To do this, select the “Block

all incoming connections” checkbox. This setting ignores all settings in the fire-

wall configuration and blocks every connection to your computer. This setting

also turns off notifications.

5. Once you have completed making changes to the firewall settings, complete the

steps by clicking OK, and Windows Vista applies your changes to the system. If

you are a member of a domain and you cannot change some of your firewall

configuration options, your network administrator may be controlling the set-

tings through Group Policy. You also need the correct credentials to change your

firewall settings. If you do not have local administrative rights, the advanced fea-

tures of Windows Firewall are unavailable for your configuration.