Have you ever installed a program that you only
needed for offline use, but it insisted on trying to
connect to the internet? About a year ago we
showed you how to allow programs through the
Windows firewall . This time around we’re going to
show you how to block them with it in 7 & 8.
If you’re not sure which programs are accessing the
internet, one easy way to find out is to open up
Windows Resource Monitor. This can be done by
searching for “resmon” in the start menu, or typing
“resmon” into the Run Box (Windows Key + R). In this
example I noticed that the Everything app had
networking activity and I’m going to block it to make
sure it doesn’t send any data away from my PC.
To get started we need to open up Windows Firewall.
One quick way to do this is from the Control Panel.
Just click the Windows Firewall icon.
From the Firewall page click Advanced settings.
Here you can choose which you would like to block
first: Inbound or Outbound. When it comes down to it I
think blocking Outbound is usually enough for most
applications. When Outbound connects are blocked,
this means that the application can’t send any of your
data to a remote server somewhere on the internet. Of
course, if bandwidth is what you’re worried about you
should probably block both. In any case, the process
for blocking both is the same, so I’ll just cover one.
Click the New Rule… button.
For the Rule Type select the “Program” bullet and click
Next.
Select the “This program path:” option and then either
type in the path or use the browse button to find the
executable of the application.
For the Action select the “Block the connection”
option and click Next.
For the Profile tab, select all of the available boxes:
Domain, Private, and Public.
You can name the firewall rule whatever you like. It’s a
good idea to keep it something memorable or relevantthough because you may want to change or disable it
later on.
Now the rule should be created and ready to go.
However some applications also run as a service, so be
sure to disable that as well if you can. Right click the
newly created rule and select “Properties.”
From the properties window select the “Programs and
Services” tab and then click the Settings button.
Here click to “Apply to this service” and then select
the service that matches up with the program blocked
by the rule. If you can’t find a matching service,
chances are your program didn’t install a service along
side it (so you can just cancel out). Click OK to save
change sand exit from both this and the properties
window.
That’s all there is for creating an Outbound rule. Now if
you want just repeat the process for an Inbound rule
and the program will be completely blocked from
internet access.
If you want to temporarily give the application internet
access again, you can disable the firewall rule by right-
clicking on it within the Advanced Firewall Security
window. If you want to permanently get rid of this
blocking rule, just delete it.
needed for offline use, but it insisted on trying to
connect to the internet? About a year ago we
showed you how to allow programs through the
Windows firewall . This time around we’re going to
show you how to block them with it in 7 & 8.
If you’re not sure which programs are accessing the
internet, one easy way to find out is to open up
Windows Resource Monitor. This can be done by
searching for “resmon” in the start menu, or typing
“resmon” into the Run Box (Windows Key + R). In this
example I noticed that the Everything app had
networking activity and I’m going to block it to make
sure it doesn’t send any data away from my PC.
To get started we need to open up Windows Firewall.
One quick way to do this is from the Control Panel.
Just click the Windows Firewall icon.
From the Firewall page click Advanced settings.
Here you can choose which you would like to block
first: Inbound or Outbound. When it comes down to it I
think blocking Outbound is usually enough for most
applications. When Outbound connects are blocked,
this means that the application can’t send any of your
data to a remote server somewhere on the internet. Of
course, if bandwidth is what you’re worried about you
should probably block both. In any case, the process
for blocking both is the same, so I’ll just cover one.
Click the New Rule… button.
For the Rule Type select the “Program” bullet and click
Next.
Select the “This program path:” option and then either
type in the path or use the browse button to find the
executable of the application.
For the Action select the “Block the connection”
option and click Next.
For the Profile tab, select all of the available boxes:
Domain, Private, and Public.
You can name the firewall rule whatever you like. It’s a
good idea to keep it something memorable or relevantthough because you may want to change or disable it
later on.
Now the rule should be created and ready to go.
However some applications also run as a service, so be
sure to disable that as well if you can. Right click the
newly created rule and select “Properties.”
From the properties window select the “Programs and
Services” tab and then click the Settings button.
Here click to “Apply to this service” and then select
the service that matches up with the program blocked
by the rule. If you can’t find a matching service,
chances are your program didn’t install a service along
side it (so you can just cancel out). Click OK to save
change sand exit from both this and the properties
window.
That’s all there is for creating an Outbound rule. Now if
you want just repeat the process for an Inbound rule
and the program will be completely blocked from
internet access.
If you want to temporarily give the application internet
access again, you can disable the firewall rule by right-
clicking on it within the Advanced Firewall Security
window. If you want to permanently get rid of this
blocking rule, just delete it.
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