Before you explore Windows Firewall, take a look at the Action Center. This is a single point of notification for most of your PC’s security. You can open the Action Center in several ways. Use whichever is most convenient for you:
Whichever method you use, the Action Center opens. Figure 9.2 shows an example. We clicked the arrow button to the right of each heading so that you can see the descriptive text under each heading. You can click that button to show or hide the same descriptive text.
By default, Windows Firewall is turned on and working at all times, so your Action Center should show “On” beside the Firewall item, as in Figure 9.2 (and you will see only the Network Firewall item in Action Center if you click the arrow beside the Security heading). If your version of Figure 9.2 shows Off or Not Monitored, you may have a third-party firewall program running in place of Windows Firewall. Many such programs are available, such as McAfee, Symantec, and Check Point. If your firewall is turned off and you don’t know why, it would be good to find out the reason — perhaps from your computer manufacturer or a support person who worked on your computer. If you don’t have any firewall up, you should definitely turn on Windows Firewall.
To turn Windows Firewall on or off, you must have administrative privileges. In the System And Security Control Panel window, click Windows Firewall. You should see the current firewall status in the right pane, and options for controlling the firewall in the left pane. Click Change Notification Settings or Turn Windows Firewall On or Off in the left pane to see the options shown in the foreground of Figure 9.3.
If you have a third-party firewall that you feel is more secure than the Windows Firewall, you can choose the Off option to turn off Windows Firewall. Just make sure you have a firewall up when you go online. Otherwise, you won’t have anything to stop uninvited traffic on your network connection after the traffic gets by your Internet Service Provider.
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