Manually Opening Ports in Windows Firewall

Sometimes you need to manually open ports in the Windows Firewall to allow programs on your computer to talk to the Internet. Be forewarned that opening up ports in your firewall exposes your computer to the Internet which can make it vulnerable to attack.

• From the Start menu, open 'My Network Places'.
• Under Network Tasks, click 'View Network Connections'.
• Right-click your Internet connection, and select Properties.
• Click the Advanced tab, and then press the Settings button.

Note: If the Settings button is unavailable, the Windows Firewall is not enabled on this connection, and you do not have to open any ports.

• Press the Add button to open a new port.
• In the 'Description of service' field, type a friendly name for the port to help you remember why you open it. For example, type Remote Desktop : Port 3389.
• In the 'Name or IP address' field, enter the address of the computer hosting this service on your network box. Generally this will be local computer, so type "127.0.0.1". Although, you can specify the IP address of another computer on your local network.
• In the External port and Internal port boxes, type the port number that you want to open.
• Select either TCP or UDP, and press the OK button.

Repeat the steps above for each port that you want to open.