How to turn on two-way Firewall protection in Vista
March 29, 2009 Windows Vista Tips
Windows XP and Vista offer built in Firewall protection. The difference is that 
WinXP only offers protections against incoming threats, while Vista is capable of two-way protection, meaning the Firewall in Vista is capable of watching and blocking both inbound and outbound traffic. Monitoring outbound traffic could be just as critical as monitoring inbound traffic.
But by default, the Firewall in Vista is not enabled to block outbound traffic. Vista does nothing about what your sends out. Here is how to enable two-way Firewall protection in Vista:
- Click Start, type Firewall and hit Enter.
- In the search result, select Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.
- Click Windows Firewall Properties.
- In the dialog box, the first three tabs have an Outbound Connections drop-down menu. In all three, select Block.
