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Help: Turn Windows Firewall on or off

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To turn Windows Firewall on or off

  • Open Windows Firewall.

    To turn Windows Firewall on, click On, and then click OK.

    To turn Windows Firewall off, click Off, and then click OK.

Notes

  • To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure.

  • To start Windows Firewall, click Start, point to Control Panel, and then click Windows Firewall.

  • You can also use the netsh command with the firewall context to perform this procedure and configure other Windows Firewall settings.

  • You can also use Group Policy settings to perform this procedure and configure other Windows Firewall settings.

  • You can configure Windows Firewall settings in the standard profile or the domain profile. The domain profile is used when a computer is connected to a network in which the computer's domain account resides. The standard profile is used when a computer is connected to a network in which the computer's domain account does not reside, such as a public network or the Internet. Make sure Windows Firewall is using the correct profile when you perform this procedure.

  • If a Windows Firewall setting appears dimmed in the graphical user interface, and on the General tab, you see For your security, some settings are controlled by Group Policy, the setting might be managed by Group Policy. If all Windows Firewall settings appear dimmed, and on the General tab, you see You must be a computer administrator to change these settings, you do not have administrative rights to configure Windows Firewall.

  • On Windows Server 2003, Windows Firewall is turned off by default and the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing service is disabled by default. You might have to start the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing service if you try to perform this procedure and you have never started Windows Firewall.

  • Windows Firewall is not included in the original release of the Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

  • If you start Windows Firewall after you start applications that are listed in the Windows Firewall exceptions list, you might have to restart your computer. Windows Firewall cannot track the state of a program's traffic if the program was started before Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing service was started. This problem typically occurs when you start a program, and then try to start Windows Firewall for the first time.

See Also

Concepts

Help: Windows Firewall Concepts
Help: Turn Windows Firewall on with no exceptions
Help: Administering Windows Firewall with Netsh
Help: Administering Windows Firewall with Group Policy
Help: Determine which profile Windows Firewall is using