More than 65 thousand ports can potentially be open on a computer. To work safely in the network, you should control the opening of ports by the firewall and make the necessary settings, if necessary.
Instructions
Step 1
The ports required by programs to work with the network are usually allocated automatically by the operating system. In many cases, standard ports are used that are specific to certain applications. In this case, the program is added to the list of trusted applications in the firewall, no settings are required.
Step 2
The need to open a specific port in the firewall is quite rare - for example, when setting up a network game. Sometimes it happens that even after adding the game to the list of trusted applications, there is no connection with the game server, so the ports through which data exchange takes place must be opened manually.
Step 3
If you are using the standard Windows Firewall, open: "Start" - "Control Panel" - "Windows Firewall". In the firewall window that opens, select the "Exceptions" tab and click the "Add Port" button. A new window will open, in it enter the port number and specify the protocol used, usually TCP. You can specify any port name - for example, "Game". Click OK.
Step 4
You can close and open ports of the standard Windows firewall through the command line (this method also works on a remote computer). Let's say you want to open port 3344. Open a command prompt: Start - All Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt, type netsh firewall add portopening TCP 3344 system and press Enter. An OK message appears, indicating that the port has been successfully opened. To control it, type the command netstat –aon, and you will see port 3344 in the list of open ports.
Step 5
To close port 3344 again, type netsh firewall delete portopening TCP 3344 at the command prompt. You can close this port by simply removing it from the firewall exceptions list.
Step 6
When using third-party firewalls, the exact way to open the port depends on which firewall you are using. But the general order of opening a port is usually the same - you need to create a new rule in which you specify the port number, data transfer protocol and the type of connection, inbound or outbound.
