How to Open a Port in Windows Firewall - Open any Program in Windows 7 Firewall

Enable Windows Firewall in your computer is a good idea to prevent any external intrusions in your computer. Windows Firewall can block most of hacking attempts by both human hackers and malicious programs. Usually Windows Firewall block any inbound activities which are not matched in rules set in Firewall rules. So some times we may face issues with this Windows Firewall feature which block some legitimate applications as the activities of that application does not match the inbound rules set in Windows Firewall. So in that case we need to write new inbound rules for Windows Firewall and open the port associated with that particular program or application. This issue usually happen when the application is associated with an unregistered port where there is no specific Firewall rule set for that particular port. In this situation we need to write a new rule for Windows Firewall to open that particular port.After opening that port, Windows Firewall will not block any communication through that port again. If you don't want to open a port, you can allow that specific program through Windows Firewall.

Opening a port is required most times when you are playing with Xbox 360 console (To play with Xbox you need to open port numbers TCP 80,UDP 88, UDP 3074, TCP 3074, UDP 53,TCP 53 ports), multi user games where communication is through a specific port which is blocked or any network programs which communicate to other computers via an unregistered port etc. In this tutorial we can see the steps to open any port in a Windows 7 computer.

Steps to Open a Port in Windows 7 Firewall

1. Click on Start

2. Go to Control Panel ( View by Small icons or Large icons)

3. Click on Windows Firewall