How to manage windows firewall for LAN

Hey guys this is Ajit and welcome back to GearedPress. If you are on this page then you must have stuck in issues of windows firewall. We are now going to learn managing Windows Firewall for getting access to or from another computer connected in same LAN. Windows Firewall is a software component of Microsoft Windows that provides firewalling and packet filtering functions.

A personal firewall is an application which controls network traffic to and from a computer, permitting or denying communications based on a security policy.Typically it works as an application layer firewall.

A personal firewall differs from a conventional firewall in terms of scale. A personal firewall will usually protect only the computer on which it is installed, as compared to a conventional firewall which is normally installed on a designated interface between two or more networks, such as a router or proxy server. Hence, personal firewalls allow a security policy to be defined for individual computers, whereas a conventional firewall controls the policy between the networks that it connects.

The per-computer scope of personal firewalls is useful to protect machines that are moved across different networks. For example, a laptop computer may be used on a trusted intranet at a workplace where minimal protection is needed as a conventional firewall is already in place, and services that require open ports such as file and printer sharing are useful. The same laptop could be used at public Wi-Fi hotspots, where is time to decide the level of trust, and can set individual security policies for each network. You can read more here.

Our team received many questions based on this. I think learning more about Windows Firewall, we should go for tutorial.

Here we are going to give access to other computers connected in same LAN. Say my PC1 has server running on it and i want to access its files from PC2 in LAN. We usually need this when we work in a group and editing files from different locations in same lab.

Now lets get ahead to it without wasting much time. Just follow following steps properly.

Open control panel and hit Windows Firewall option.
click advance setting on the left side of screen.

3. Click on Inbound rules on left panel under menu.

4. Now you can see New Rule marked with red box in picture below, click on it.

5. When new window will popped up asking you to choose type of rule you want to create. Select port and hit next.

6. You will be asked for selecting protocols from TCP or UDP. Select TCP. Now below you can see types of ports asked i.e. all ports and specific ports. Select specific port and enter port no. 80. and hit next.

7. Now you have to select Allow the connection. Click next.

8. Now you will be asked to choose from Domain, Private and Public. Select all of them and hit enter. As this is last step you just have give a beautiful but unique name to that rule which is been created by you. And last but not the least click on Finish.

Congrats ! You just have learnt about managing firewall for LAN.