Page 701 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

Alternatively, you can set up permissions for your apps in advance, using

this option. Click “Change settings,” and proceed as shown in Figure 11-2.

Network and Internet troubleshooter

A link to a different Settings page, one filled with options designed to help
you troubleshoot your network. Relevance to firewall settings: marginal.

Firewall notification settings

Lets you shush Windows if it seems to be notifying you too often that the
firewall has blocked an app.

Advanced settings

The Defender Firewall screen gives you a good deal of control over how

this firewall works. But it doesn’t offer nearly the amount of tweakiness
that high-end geeks demand, like control over individual ports, IP
addresses, programs, and so on. It also offers no way to create a log (a text-

file record) of all attempts to contact your PC from the network or the
internet, which can be handy when you suspect that some nasty hacker has
been visiting you in the middle of the night.

There is, however, an even more powerful firewall control panel. In an
effort to avoid terrifying novices, Microsoft has hidden it, but it’s easy
enough to open. It’s called Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced

Security. You get there by choosing “Advanced settings” in the Defender
Firewall window.

In the resulting box, you can open a port for some app that needs access.

Suppose, for example, some game needs a particular port to be opened in
the firewall. Click Inbound Rules to see all the individual “rules” you’ve
established. In the right-side pane, click New Rule. A wizard opens; it

walks you through specifying the program and the port you want to open
for it.

Then again, if you’re really that much of an Advanced Security sort of

person, you can find Microsoft’s old-but-good guide for this console at