Hi All,

I'm trying to understand the behavior of the Windows Advanced Firewall in
Vista and it seems I'm just not getting it.

What I did:

- Wrote a small .NET 2.0 program with this code:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
webClient.UploadString("http://www.apple.com", "test");
}

- Added a new Outbound Rule with the following settings:

Program: myapp.exe
Action: Allow the connections
Profile: All
Scope: Any, Any
State: Enabled

- Set the main Private Profile state to:
On
Inbound: Block (default)
Outbound: Block

What I expected:

Since the Firewall state (from the Monitoring panel) reads:

"Private Profile is Active"
"Windows Firewall is on.
"Inbound connections that do not match a rule are blocked."
"Outbound connections that do not match a rule are blocked."

...I expected that my app would be permitted to do the POST operation. I
have a rule that "matches", right? Which means, everything else is blocked,
but my program should be permitted, right?

But this is not what happens, my app is blocked - which is what happens when
I set the main switch to block all inbound and outbound - and don't have a
custom outbound rule.

So what's going on?

Any help or pointers appreciated.

thanks

Vista RC2 Build 5744

No one out there has tried this? I'm really interested in knowing if this is
really broken.

"Daniel" wrote:

Hi All,

I'm trying to understand the behavior of the Windows Advanced Firewall in
Vista and it seems I'm just not getting it.

What I did:

- Wrote a small .NET 2.0 program with this code:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
webClient.UploadString("http://www.apple.com", "test");
}

- Added a new Outbound Rule with the following settings:

Program: myapp.exe
Action: Allow the connections
Profile: All
Scope: Any, Any
State: Enabled

- Set the main Private Profile state to:
On
Inbound: Block (default)
Outbound: Block

What I expected:

Since the Firewall state (from the Monitoring panel) reads:

"Private Profile is Active"
"Windows Firewall is on.
"Inbound connections that do not match a rule are blocked."
"Outbound connections that do not match a rule are blocked."

..I expected that my app would be permitted to do the POST operation. I
have a rule that "matches", right? Which means, everything else is blocked,
but my program should be permitted, right?

But this is not what happens, my app is blocked - which is what happens when
I set the main switch to block all inbound and outbound - and don't have a
custom outbound rule.

So what's going on?

Any help or pointers appreciated.

thanks

Vista RC2 Build 5744