Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

If you plan to run your own web server like Apache HTTP server, then you may have to open a port for people who may want to connect to your server. People, who connect to your local server, use browsers which connect to the port 80 or 82 of your server. This means that you have to allow and open these ports for your web server program. The same is true for some other programs which require inbound access, for example, a bit-torrent client like uTorrent etc. If you are using the Windows Firewall, then this task is not so straightforward. You can open a port in the Windows 8 Firewall using the steps shown below :

In these steps, we are going to allow and open ports 80 and 82 as an example.

  1. Press the key combination Windows logo key + R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog. Type wf.msc in the Run dialog and press Enter. This would open the Windows Firewall with Advanced Secruity window.

    Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

  2. The Windows Firewall window has a list of rules in the left side. Inbound rules are used when an external computer connects to a port on your local computer. Click on the Inbound Rules in the this list on the left side to select the inbound rules section.

    Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

  3. Click on the New Rule… on the right side of the Windows Firewall window. Alternatively, you can also select Action → New Rule from the menubar. This would open the New Inbound Rule Wizard window.

    Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

  4. In the wizard, select Port as the new Rule Type and click Next,

    Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

  5. You have to select whether you want to open a TCP port or a UDP port. A webserver uses TCP port. Similarly, a bit-torrent client uses TCP port. We would be selecting TCP port in this example. Then click on Specific local ports. Then choose one port like 80, or a range of ports like 80-82 (all ports from 80 to 82). You can separate ports by a comma. The protocol type (TCP or UDP) and the number of port(s) depends on the program you are opening port for. Click Next to continue.

    Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

  6. Select Allow the connection as the Action and click Next.

    Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

  7. Windows Firewall uses different profiles for different types of connections. In this step, select all options (Domain, Private and Public) to make sure the port is allowed in all the profiles. Click Next to continue.

    Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

  8. You have to give a name to the new rule. You can type any name you like. For this example, we would use Web Server for the new rule. You can also type a description of the new rule but it is not necessary. Then click the Finish button to finalize the rule.

    Open a Port in Windows 8 Firewall

  9. That’s it. You have successfully created a new inbound rule to open a port of your computer. You can use the same instructions to open any port or port range on your computer.