Use Windows Firewall - Windows Tutorial

- [Instructor] If you use a laptop and work in multiple locations, or if you travel a lot with that laptop, you likely connect to a lot of networks. Some of those networks are private, like a network at home or work, while some are public, like those in hotels and coffee shops. You can open Windows Firewall to see what type of network you're connected to right now. One way is to type Firewall here at the task bar. Make sure to select Windows Defender Firewall in the results. See if your network is private or public. The network or networks that are active are listed as such, and you can most likely control the firewall settings. You might also see that you're connected to a domain network though. Domain networks are available in larger corporations and enterprises, and are managed by network administrators. You won't be able to change the firewall settings here if you're on this kind of network. I'm connected to a private network. You can see that my firewall is on, it's active, and it has a green check mark beside it so I know it's healthy. This is the way yours should look too. If you're in charge of managing your own firewall and see that the firewall is turned off, you should look into why. It may have been turned off because you installed a third party firewall, but it could be because malware has infiltrated the system. If your firewall is turned off, click Turn Windows Defender Firewall on or off in the left side of the window. Because my firewall is configured and working properly, I'm not going to make any changes here. However, if your firewall is turned off and you're sure it should be on, go ahead and turn it back on here. Remember though, only change the firewall status if you know it should be on and it isn't. If you're part of a domain, your firewall will be managed by network administrator, and it's likely you couldn't turn it on even if you tried. Also, if your system is infiltrated with malware, you might try to turn it on, but won't be able to. In this case, you'll need to get rid of the malware first and return here later. As a side note, it's not a good practice to run multiple firewalls, even if you feel it would better protect your computer. In fact, multiple firewalls could be the reason that Windows Firewall has been disabled. A firewall, by default, blocks risky connections. Let's take a look now at what's blocked by default for both the private and public connection profiles. To get there, I'll click Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall. Let me give you an example of how this works. By default, remote desktop isn't set up to pass through the firewall. It's disabled because this opens the system up to allow remote users. If you want to use remote desktop, perhaps to access your work computer from home, you'll have to create an exception in the firewall to allow it. Just scroll down and locate the desired connection or feature. I'll scroll down to remote desktop. Here it is. You can see it's not enabled for the private profile or the public one. To enable it, I'll click here, and if I wanted it to be enabled for public, I'd click here as well. But I think private is good enough. Now, I'll click Okay. Note that you can repeat these steps to disable the connection. Take a minute to see what else is on this list and what's enabled and disabled by default. There are additional options if you're feeling exceptionally vulnerable or susceptible to outside attacks. One is to block all incoming connections. You do that back where we were before in the turn Windows Defender Firewall on or off area. I'll click there to show you. Here, for the private network, I can choose to block all incoming connections, including those in the list of allowed apps. And I can do the same for public. You might want to do this if you're using an unsecured wifi connection at an airport or hotel. I've covered just about all you need to know about Windows Firewall, and this movie is almost to its end. If you've made changes here while following along with me, it might be best to restore the defaults before continuing. To do this, click Restore Defaults right here in the left pane of the Windows Firewall Settings window.