How to open Windows firewall in Windows 11

Windows Defender Firewall is a built-in security feature for Windows operating system. It can monitor both incoming and out going traffic of the Windows 11 PC. Firewall is a network security and protection product that safeguards your PC from malicious harmful network traffic.

Windows Defender Firewall

To launch the application, follow the below steps:

Control Panel >> System and Security >> Windows Defender Firewall

We can configure and check Firewall status on Windows Security screen as well. There are many firewall settings that we can configure the firewall
on Windows 11 operating system. Windows firewall can be setup to block certain type of network packets from going in/out of the PC.

1. Firewall Status – A green tick mark is good to go.
2. Allow an app through the Firewall – Incase firewall blocks legitimate application, we can allow the application through the firewall. When Defender Firewall blocks an application it usually prompts the user for the first time. We can click Allow access button if the application is legitimate in the alert prompt window.

These settings can also be managed by third party vendor antivirus products like Norton Firewall.

Example

For example, Windows firewall has blocked Node.js JavaScript Runtime during automatic command line test run. Node.js is a legitimate application and is required to run the tests.

Select the network profile and click on the Allow access button to allow the application communication through the firewall.

Advantages

Windows Defender Firewall can help prevent hackers or malicious programs from gaining access to the PC through the Internet or a computer network.

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Windows 11 Tutorials

https://www.testingdocs.com/windows-11-tutorials/

More Information on Windows 11

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows

If a legitimate App or Program is being blocked by Windows Firewall, you can find below the steps to unblock or Allow Apps through Firewall in Windows 10/11.

Allow Programs And Apps Through Firewall in Windows 11/10

While trying to open a third-party App or Program on the computer, you may come across a message saying that the App or Program that you want to access has been blocked by the Firewall.

If the App or Program that you are trying to open is from a legitimate source, you can go ahead and unblock the program in Windows Firewall.

Once the App or Program is unblocked, it will be allowed to bypass the Firewall and you will be able to use the App on your computer, without encountering any error messages.

Note: You won’t be able to access the option to Allow Apps through Firewall, if a third-party antivirus program is installed on your computer.

1. Allow App or Program Through Windows Firewall

First, try to open the App or Program that you want to Allow through the Firewall, so that it gets blocked by the Firewall and gets listed on Allowed Apps Screen.

Next, type Windows Defender in the search bar and click on Windows Defender Firewall in the search results.

On the next screen, click on Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall option.

On the next screen, check the little box next to the program that you want to unblock or Allow through Windows Firewall.

Note: Checking the box allows the program to access network resources on your computer.

If the program that you want to Allow is not listed, click on Allow another app… button. On the next screen, select the App or Program from the list and click on Add.

If the program is not listed, click on the Browse button and select the program from its location on your computer.

2. Allow Apps Through Firewall Using Settings

Another way to Allow an App or Program through the Firewall on your computer is by using Settings.

Windows 11: Go to Settings > Privacy & Security (left-pane) > Windows Security (right-pane) and click on Firewall & network protection in the right-pane.

Windows 10: Go to Settings > Update & Security > select Windows Security in the left-pane. In the right-pane, scroll down and click on Firewall & network protection option.

On Firewall and network protection screen, scroll down and click on Allow an app through firewall link.

On the next screen, check the little box next to App or Program that you want to Allow.

Note: If you are not logged in to Admin Account, you will be required to click on Change Settings button and enter your Admin password.

Check Firewall Port is Open or Block on Windows 11 PC using PowerShell Command. Let’s understand how to check firewall port connectivity from Windows 11 PC.

There are different types of firewalls (2 of them are explained in this post) here with this topic of Windows 11 Firewall. Let’s try to identify and Fix application connectivity issues using the following steps.

More than one Windows firewall application can be installed on Windows 11 PCs. However, you also have firewall appliances placed between your server infrastructure in Data Center and Windows endpoint devices such as Windows 11 laptops.

Both the firewall settings come into the picture when you have a connectivity issue for the client-server application. So, it’s better to start troubleshooting from a firewall application installed on Windows 11.

Checking the Firewall ports connectivity with PowerShell command or Windows Terminal is the best option for Windows 11 PCs. I will be using the Test-NetConnection PS command to display diagnostic information for a connection.

Defender Windows 11 Firewall Application

I normally don’t recommend using any 3rd party antivirus and firewall applications for Windows 10 and Windows 11 home computers. Microsoft has its Antivirus, Anti-malware, and Firewall application called Microsoft Defender installed on all the Windows 11 and Windows 10 PCs.

You can launch the Microsoft Defender application configuration from Windows 11 Taskbar, as shown below. Click on the Blue icon to launch Microsoft Defender, Windows 11, Security settings.

The Windows Security settings app can be launched from the Search option from the Start menu. Search with Windows Security and open the Windows Security app. This app is by default installed on all Windows 11 PCs.

As you can see below, Firewall & Network Protection is enabled as an out of the box setting. Suppose you are looking at a Windows 11 PC of an organization, and you can see this enabled. In that case, the firewall component is managed by some other third-party applications such as Symantec or McAfee EPO.

How to Check and Identify Firewall Application Enabled on Windows 11?

How to check and identify the application providing firewall service on Windows 11 PCs? Can you identify the Firewall Application Enabled on Windows 11 using the following method? You can check this from the same Windows Security app discussed in the above section.

• Open Windows Security App – Click on Settings.
• You can manage Security providers on Windows 11 PC.
• Click on Manage Providers link.

Under the Firewall section on the Security Provider page, you can see the Microsoft Firewall application manages the Firewall settings, and that is nothing but Microsoft Defender.

The following sections will have further troubleshooting options to Check Firewall Port is Open or Block on Windows 11 using PowerShell Command.

Test Ping and DNS Connectivity with Test-NetConnection PowerShell Command

You can now test the Ping and DNS Connectivity with Test-NetConnection PowerShell Command. You can use the Test-NetConnection PowerShell command to test connectivity and DNS (name resolution) between server and client. You can launch the Windows Terminal and type the following command to test whether internet connectivity is there or not.

Test-NetConnection bbc.com

I tried to reach BBC.COM with the Test-NetConnection PS command, which indicates the Firewall configurations, internet connection, DNS, Server IP, etc., on Windows 11 PC. And most of the time, the PING/ICMP is disabled on the server-side because of security reasons.

In the following scenario, the Windows 11 Firewall application (Microsoft Defender) is not blocking any communication between BBC and the client device. This is the first step to check whether the Firewall Port Open or Block on Windows 11 using PowerShell Command

The Test-NetConnection PowerShell command without any parameter works just like the PING command. This will help get the following details Computer Name, Remote Address, Network Interface details, Source IP, Ping Succeeded or failed status, Ping Reply Details (RTT).

NOTE! – Most of the time, PING/ICMP is disabled between client devices and servers.

Normally you will need to provide the destination address to check whether ICMP or PING is enabled between servers and Windows 11 client devices. The following is the example of Test-NetConnection from an Azure VM (Windows 11).

• ComputerName : internetbeacon.msedge.net
• RemoteAddress : 13.107.4.52
• InterfaceAlias : Ethernet 2
• SourceAddress : 10.1.0.12
• PingSucceeded : False
• PingReplyDetails (RTT) : 0 ms

More detailed ping results will be available if you use the following parameters of the Test-NetConnection PS command. With InformationLevel and Detailed parameters, you can get more Name Resolution Results, etc.

Test-NetConnection 10.1.0.6 -InformationLevel “Detailed”

• ComputerName : 10.1.0.6
• RemoteAddress : 10.1.0.6
• NameResolutionResults : 10.1.0.6
  • cmmemcm.internal.cloudapp.net
• InterfaceAlias : Ethernet 2
• SourceAddress : 10.1.0.12
• NetRoute (NextHop) : 0.0.0.0
• PingSucceeded : True
• PingReplyDetails (RTT) : 2 ms

The Test-NetConnection is one of my favorites to find the connectivity between server and client apps. You can easily check the firewall ports connectivity between Windows 11 PC and servers using PowerShell Command.

The Test-NetConnection command is part of the PowerShell module NetTCPIP. This module is loaded on all the Windows 11 PCs by default.

I used the following command to get the TCP firewall port connectivity details and understand whether the firewall port is opened between the remote server (10.1.0.6) and the Windows 11 client on port 80.

Test-NetConnection 10.1.0.6 -Port 80 -InformationLevel “Detailed”

You can check the below details to identify whether the TCP port 80 is opened between the remote server 10.1.0.6 and Windows 11 Client. The key components of the result are TcpTestSucceeded and NetToute.

The TCP Test Succeeded value should be True to confirm the TCP connection between remote server and client is successful. The UDP ports connectivity testing is not supported with this command line.

• Computer Name : 10.1.0.6
• RemoteAddress : 10.1.0.6
• RemotePort : 80
• NameResolutionResults : 10.1.0.6
  • cmmemcm.internal.cloudapp.net
• MatchingIPsecRules :
• NetworkIsolationContext : Internet
• InterfaceAlias : Ethernet 2
• SourceAddress : 10.1.0.12
• NetRoute (NextHop) : 0.0.0.0
• TcpTestSucceeded : True

Firewall Port Connectivity Troubleshooting with Route Diagnostics

You can perform route diagnostics to connect to a remote server from Windows 11 client using the Test-NetConnection command line. This is helpful to understand routing details from client to server. These types of information are useful for advanced network troubleshooting.

Related Post – Network Trace Examples Microsoft RPC Remote Procedure Call

I used the following command to check the network route diagnostics between the remote server and Windows 11 client devices.

Test-NetConnection 10.1.0.6 -DiagnoseRouting -InformationLevel Detailed

RouteDiagnosticsSucceeded: True value gives you the confidence that network routing between remote server and Windows device is perfectly fine.

• ComputerName : 10.1.0.6 RemoteAddress : 10.1.0.6
• SelectedSourceAddress : 10.1.0.12
• OutgoingInterfaceIndex : 6
• SelectedNetRoute : DestinationPrefix: 10.1.0.0/24
• DestinationAddressSelectionEvents :
• RouteSelectionEvents :
• SourceAddressSelectionEvents :
• RouteDiagnosticsSucceeded : True

Troubleshoot Network Connectivity Issues on Windows 11

The entire blog post is intended to help with Troubleshooting Network Connectivity Issues on Windows 11. I see Netstat, Get-NetUDPEndpoint, and Get-NetTCPConnection commands are here to check and identify network-related issues. This helps to check what ports are open or blocked on Windows 11 PCs.

Network Connectivity Troubleshooting on Windows 11 using NetStat -ano commands from CMD; however, I would prefer to use PowerShell Commands such as Get-NetTCPConnection, Get-NetUDPEndpoint, etc.

You will need to use the Portqry.exe application to check whether the firewall port is open or blocked for the UDP port. The State is the important column in the results to understand whether the port is blocked or open.

There are four different states available for Windows 11 when using the Get-NetTCPConnection PowerShell command.

• Listen – Shows the ports that are waiting to send an answer whenever a client – server program requests.
• Bound – Show the ports that have transitioned out of time wait.
• Established Internet – Show the posts that Established the connection to the internet.
• Established – Show the ports that Established the connection without going to internet.

Conclusion – Identify and Fix application connectivity issues

In this post, I tried to help you identify and Fix application connectivity issues on Windows 11 Device. First, we have checked the details of the Firewall application, and then we started checking the network connectivity between the remote server and Windows 11 client using the PowerShell command.

Firewall applications check on Windows 11 is important to isolate network or local Windows Firewall issues. In the scenario, you can disable the local Windows firewall application – Microsoft Defender to isolate the issue.

If this step didn’t help resolve the connectivity issue of your application, check firewall appliances placed in between the remote server and Windows 11 client. You can check this using many methods and command explained in the above section.

Anoop C Nair is Microsoft MVP! He is a Device Management Admin with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is Blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. He writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc.