Inbound Rules is the location you visit when you want to create specific incoming firewall rules. It is easy to get mixed up in thinking about inbound and outbound rules, and which one you are really looking for. Always think about these terms from the client computer's perspective.

When these rules get pushed out to your workstations and are then sitting inside WFAS, inbound rules are for manipulating the traffic that is coming inbound toward that client computer. These are by far the most common types of rules to be configuring for your systems. Since Windows Firewall tends to block inbound traffic by default, you will find yourself most often creating inbound rules that are configured to allow traffic into your machines. This is even more true of server operating systems, as there are many legitimate reasons why you might allow inbound traffic to a Windows Server than to a client computer.