Windows Vista comes with a pretty good firewall that can be configured easily.
It may happen at times that a program that is installed can no longer download updates or connect to the internet because the Windows firewall no longer recognizes it(say after an update) or blocks it.
To overcome this,we can manually add programs to allow through firewall.As with any system level change,this too needs administrator rights.
Here is how :
1.Go to Control Panel > Windows Firewall
2.Select the option Allow a program through Windows Firewall.
3.There will be a list of programs/applications in Exceptions tab which have tick marks or are unchecked (indicating whether they are allowed or not through firewall).
4.Hit Browse and manually point towards the program directory path where the program in installed,select the required executable files and add them so that they too now appear in the Exceptions tab with tick mark next to them.
What I have found at times is many custom programs after upgrades stop working or stop updating primarily because they are either blocked or not recognized by firewall so that they could not gain access to the internet.
The above steps fix that.
Cheers.
>Very helpful article.
Just what I was looking for to change Firewall settings.
Good blog.
>@Dimitry
Glad that the article was useful to you.
As always,take care when changing system settings especially the ones that deal with Security.