You may be surprised to discover that early versions of Windows X P they did not have a firewall as a protection measure against unauthorized access to our computer, or local network, through the Internet. In fact, it was not introduced until the arrival of Windows XP Service Pack 2 , an update that enabled a firewall by default in Windows.
Since then, the use of the firewall or firewall has become enormously popular, in such a way that many users know how to use it, while others do not know how it can help them in their day to day life.
The truth is that we could define a firewall as a system that is responsible for filtering the information that reaches our computer from the Internet , blocking those programs that it considers potentially harmful.
In this way, the user can add a program to the list of allowed programs, to allow it to communicate through the firewall. In turn, when we use a public network, the firewall managed by Windows could also protect the system by blocking any unsolicited attempts to connect to the computer.
Although its use is in most cases quite simple and straightforward, it is necessary to know how to activate, use and configure it.
Activating the Windows firewall
If you want to activate the Windows firewall , you should know that it is necessary to do so through Windows Defender , which is the program or service designed by Microsoft in order to manage everything related to computer security.
To activate it, something that you can easily do in a matter of a few seconds, you just have to click on Start and go to the Windows Defender Security Center . Once this is done, you should go to Firewall and network protection .
Now choose a network profile and finally activate the firewall . Of course, if you use Windows 10, remember that the firewall is activated by default, so it is not advisable to deactivate it unless we know what we are doing.
Allowing an application through the Windows firewall
We may want to allow a certain program to get through the firewall, an element that might be essential for it to function properly.
In this case, what we have to do is go back to the Firewall and network protection section , and click on the option Allow an application through the firewall .
When we have selected this option, a new window will open where we can see a list with all the programs installed on the computer, as well as some boxes to check if we want a specific application to be able or not to connect through public or private networks.
Depending on whether we want to allow or block the application, we simply have to check or uncheck the corresponding boxes.
