Necuno
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What's new in the Windows 7 Firewall? (full article @ link)
Introduction
Since the introduction of the first firewall built into the operating system (Internet Connection Firewall) of Windows XP, Microsoft has steadily improved the firewall in each subsequent incarnation of Windows. While the Windows Firewall included in the newest client OS, Windows 7 is more evolutionary than revolutionary, it does provide some nice tweaks to make it more user-friendly and at least one big change that makes a difference to mobile users. In this article, we will take a look at the Windows Firewall in Windows 7 and show you how to configure it with multiple active firewall policies.
The Evolution of the Windows Firewall
The firewall software in Windows XP was simple and rudimentary and protected incoming traffic only, blocking any inbound connections that had not been initiated by your computer - and it was turned off by default. Service Pack 2 turned it on by default and made it possible for administrators to enable it via Group Policy. The Vista firewall was built on a new Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) and added the ability to filter outbound traffic via the Advanced Security MMC snap-in. With Windows 7, Microsoft has tweaked the firewall further and made it much more useable, especially on mobile computers, by adding support for multiple active firewall policies.
Introducing the Windows 7 Firewall
As with Vista, the basic settings for the Windows 7 firewall are accessed via the Control Panel applet. Unlike Vista, you can also access the advanced settings (including configuration of filtering for outbound connections) through the Control Panel instead of having to create an empty MMC and add a snap-in. Just click the Advanced Settings link in the left panel, as shown in Figure 1.
