Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall was previously called Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) is a software-based, stateful filtering firewall for Microsoft Windows XP. Windows Firewall provides protection for computers that are connected to a network by preventing unsolicited incoming traffic through TCP / IP version 4 (IPv4) and TCP / IP version 6 (IPv6). Configuration options include: Configuring and enabling port-based exceptions, Configuring and enabling program-based exceptions, Configuring basic ICMP options and Logging dropped packets and successful connections.

Windows Firewall is turned on by default for all network interfaces. This provides more network protection by default for Windows XP on new installations and upgrades. On-by-Default also protects new network connections as they are added to the system. This applies to both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic, and is enabled even if there is another firewall already present on the system.

The IPv4 and IPv6 firewall drivers have a static rule to perform stateful filtering. This static rule is called a boot-time policy. This allows the computer to perform basic networking tasks such as DNS and DHCP and communicate with a domain controller to obtain policy. Once the Windows Firewall service is running, it loads and applies the run-time policy and removes the boot-time filters. The boot-time policy cannot be configured.

Windows Firewall Command-line support

With the Netsh Helper, you can fully configure Windows Firewall, including Configure the default state of Windows Firewall (Off, On, On with no exceptions), Configure and enable port-based exceptions, Configure the logging options, Configure the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) handling options and enable program-based exceptions.

NETSH HELP

The following commands are available:

Commands in this context:
? - Displays a list of commands.
add - Adds a configuration entry to a list of entries.
bridge - Changes to the `netsh bridge’ context.
delete - Deletes a configuration entry from a list of entries.
diag - Changes to the `netsh diag’ context.
dump - Displays a configuration script.
exec - Runs a script file.
firewall - Changes to the `netsh firewall’ context.
help - Displays a list of commands.
interface - Changes to the `netsh interface’ context.
ras - Changes to the `netsh ras’ context.
routing - Changes to the `netsh routing’ context.
set - Updates configuration settings.
show - Displays information.
winsock - Changes to the `netsh winsock’ context.

The following sub-contexts are available:
bridge diag firewall interface ras routing winsock

To view help for a command, type the command, followed by a space, and then type ?.

 

Updated On: 05.09.09