.NET Questions and Solutions

Symptoms
This article describes how the Windows Firewall exception settings in the Group Policy administrative template work together with the Windows Firewall Control Panel program in Windows Vista.
Resolution
Group Policy settingsYou can configure the Windows Firewall settings in the Group Policy administrative template and then apply the settings to a Windows Vista-based computer. The settings that you use to configure exceptions appear on the Exceptions tab in the Windows Firewall Control Panel program. When you enable a setting in the Group Policy administrative template, the setting generates an enabled firewall rule that has the “Allow” action. When you disable a setting, this action generates an enabled firewall rule that has the “Block” action.
Windows Firewall Control Panel program settingsIf you enable or disable an exception by using the settings in Group Policy, the check box for the exception entry is selected in the Windows Firewall Control Panel program. A selected check box indicates only that some action has been taken in that exception. The selection does not indicate what specific action is configured in the exception. The selected check box could indicate any of the following settings:Windows Firewall: Allow inbound file and printer sharing exception Windows Firewall: Allow inbound remote administration exception Windows Firewall: Allow inbound Remote Desktop exception Windows Firewall: Allow inbound UPnP framework exceptions Windows Firewall: Allow ICMP exceptions
Full exception settingsTo view the full exception settings, use the “Windows Firewall with Advanced Security” snap-in. This snap-in is available in the Administrative Tools folder.

Symptoms
This article describes critical update 886185. This update helps narrow the definition of the My network (subnet) only, or local subnet, scope option in Windows Firewall. This is helpful in situations where Windows Firewall would consider a large network to be on the local subnet because of how the dial-up software configured the route tables. After you install critical update 886185, you may have to restart your computer.
Resolution
After you set up Windows Firewall in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), you may discover that anyone on the Internet can access resources on your computer when you use a dial-up connection to connect to the Internet. For example, after creating an exception in Windows Firewall for File and Printer Sharing, you may discover that anyone can access shared files and printers.
Note Windows Firewall automatically selects the My network (subnet) only scope option when you create an exception for File and Printer Sharing.