How to Open Firewall Ports in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
155How to Open Firewall Ports in Windows 10 [Tutorial]
Firewalls are there to protect you from threats on the internet (both traffic from the internet and from local applications trying to gain access when they shouldn’t). Sometimes, though, you’ll want to allow otherwise restricted traffic through your firewall. To do so, you’ll have to open a port.
A firewall is an essential aspect of computing and no PC should ever be without one. That’s why Windows has one bundled and active as standard. Windows Firewall occasionally has to be told to let a program communicate with the network, which is where opening ports comes in. If you want to open firewall ports in Windows 10, here’s how you do it.
Firewalls are designed to protect a network from threats. Either threats from the outside trying to get in or threats from the inside trying to get out. It does this by blocking network-enabled ports. Every time a program tries to communicate through this port, the firewall checks its database of rules to see if it is allowed or not. If it doesn’t know, it asks you, which is why you sometimes see prompts asking you if a particular program is permitted to access the internet.
The Windows’ Firewall is designed to protect the computer from potential cyber risks and malware. It does so by blocking certain applications from using the internet that might be a threat to the computer’s integrity. All applications use specific “ports” to communicate with their servers and the internet, these ports need to be opened for the applications.
In some cases, the ports are opened automatically by the application and it has instant access to the internet. However, in some cases, the ports need to be opened manually and the application is blocked from using the internet until the ports are opened. In this tutorial, we will discuss the complete method to open specific Firewall ports in Windows 10.
When a device connects to another device on a network (including the internet), it specifies a port number that lets the receiving device know how to handle the traffic. Where an IP address shows traffic how to get to a particular device on a network, the port number lets the receiving device know which program gets that traffic. By default, most unsolicited traffic from the internet is blocked by Windows Firewall. If you’re running something like a game server, you might need to open a port to allow that specific kind of traffic through the firewall.
Note: This tutorial shows you how to open a port on a particular PC’s firewall to let traffic in. If you have a router on your network (which you likely do), you will also need to allow the same traffic through that router by forwarding the port there.
This tutorial will apply for computers, laptops, desktops,and tablets running the Windows 10 operating system (Home, Professional, Enterprise, Education) from all supported hardware manufactures, like Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Toshiba,Lenovo, and Samsung).