Introduction:

Windows 7′s firewall has been enhanced significantly since XP and Vista but with these enhancements have brought a more complicated interface and less user-friendly ways to customise the open ports and allowed applications.

This HOWTO tells you step by step how to make open a specific port using the built in wizard.

You may need to open ports for many reasons such as using a non-default port for Remote Desktop Connection (RDM), using your PC as a server for applications such as FTP or for gaming.

Here’s how to do it:

Steps:

1. Click Start button > Control Panel
2. Click System and Security
3. On the right, click Windows Firewall
4. On the left, click Advanced Settings as show below
   
5. In the left pane, right click on Inbound Rules > click New Rule as show below
   
6. The New Inbound Rule Wizard will appear.
7. Select Port for the type of rule as shown below > click Next.
   
8. The Protocol and Ports screen will appear.
9. Select the protocol that you need for the particular service you are using.  For this example, I will select TCP as shown below.
   
10. Now select the Specific local ports radio button and enter the port number you need to open as shown above.  For this example, I will enter 21.  This is the standard port for FTP service if you want to make your PC into an FTP server.
11. Click Next > The Action screen should appear.
12. Select the Allow the connection radio button as shown below > click Next
    
13. The Profiles screen will appear.  Select which profiles you’d like this open port to apply to.  I’m going to accept defaults and click Next.
    
    
14. The Name screen will appear.  Enter a meaningful name for your open port rule and click Finish.
    
15. Please Share this article with others using the Share/Save options below so we can help them too.