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title, description, ms.topic, ms.date
| title | description | ms.topic | ms.date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows Firewall overview | Learn overview information about the Windows Firewall security feature. | conceptual | 11/14/2023 |
Windows Firewall overview
Windows Firewall is a security feature that helps to protect your device by filtering network traffic that enters and exits your device. This traffic can be filtered based on several criteria, including source and destination IP address, IP protocol, or source and destination port number. Windows Firewall can be configured to block or allow network traffic based on the services and applications that are installed on your device. This allows you to restrict network traffic to only those applications and services that are explicitly allowed to communicate on the network.
Windows Firewall is a host-based firewall that is included with the operating system and enabled by default on all Windows editions.
Windows Firewall supports Internet Protocol security (IPsec), which you can use to require authentication from any device that is attempting to communicate with your device. When authentication is required, devices that can't be authenticated as a trusted device can't communicate with your device. You can use IPsec to require that certain network traffic is encrypted to prevent it from being read by network packet analyzers that could be attached to the network by a malicious user.
:::row::: :::column span="2"::: Windows Firewall also works with Network Location Awareness so that it can apply security settings appropriate to the types of networks to which the device is connected. For example, Windows Firewall can apply the public network profile when the device is connected a coffee shop wi-fi, and the private network profile when the device is connected to the home network. This allows you to apply more restrictive settings to public networks to help keep your device secure.
:::column-end::: :::column span="2"::: :::image type="content" source="images/windows-security.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing the Windows Security app." lightbox="images/windows-security.png" border="false"::: :::column-end::: :::row-end:::
Practical applications
Windows Firewall offers several benefits to address your organization's network security challenges:
- Reduced risk of network security threats: By reducing the attack surface of a device, Windows Firewall provides an additional layer of defense to the defense-in-depth model. This increases manageability and decreases the likelihood of a successful attack
- Protection of sensitive data and intellectual property: Windows Firewall integrates with IPsec to provide a simple way to enforce authenticated, end-to-end network communications. This allows for scalable, tiered access to trusted network resources, helping to enforce data integrity and, if necessary, protect data confidentiality
- Extended value of existing investments: Windows Firewall is a host-based firewall included with the operating system, so no additional hardware or software is required. It's also designed to complement existing non-Microsoft network security solutions through a documented API
[!INCLUDE windows-firewall]
:::image type="icon" source="images/feedback.svg" border="false"::: Provide feedback
To provide feedback for Windows Firewall, open Feedback Hub (WIN+F) and use the category Security and Privacy > Network protection.
Next steps
[!div class="nextstepaction"] Learn about the tools to configure Windows Firewall and some recommended practices: