Widows XP was the first Microsoft Operating System to have an integrated firewall called Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), and it was intended to improve the security on windows XP. Later on when windows XP service pack 2 was released, the firewall was fairly improved and nicely integrated on windows XP security center, also new to windows XP service pack 2.
At first glance, it seems windows firewall has not changed that much on windows vista, it still can be found at control panel, and it also integrates at security center, and the configuration options are minimum, but drilling deeper on vista the firewall reveals another rather complicated façade, click on the start button and type C:\Windows\system32\WF.msc on the search box and click enter, that will bring up windows firewall with advanced security. Check the image below.
From the Windows firewall interface you can configure inbound and outbound rules; hence that outbound rules were not part of windows XP firewall, now windows vista adds another layer of security by monitoring outbound connections from your computer. Windows firewall in vista also has added a new feature called, connection security rule, which let you set rules on the type of connections you establish from your computer. New to windows firewall also is the capability to monitor IPsec connections normally used by VPN (Virtual Private Network) protocol.
As a typical user on windows vista, you won’t need to play around too much with these settings, normally Microsoft ships their operating systems with default settings and unless you need to configure the operating system for a specific task, you should be fine with those settings. As I have told you, windows vista is a lot more than some pretty icons, remember that it took more than 7 years for Microsoft to release this operating system, don’t you think that’s too much time for a bunch of Indians and Chinese people to design some pretty graphics?
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