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Firewalling for the Microsoft Windows XP Firewall






 

Before we can open ports for BearShare, we need to figure out what ports BearShare is using. Here is a brief walkthrough on how to do that. Go ahead and open up BearShare.



Click Setup in the menu at the top of your screen. In the list that drops down click Connection.



On this page you should see a Listening Port for Incomming TCP and UDP Connections box. This box contains the port you need to open to the computer you are running BearShare on. You can change this port number if you want to. Please enter the port you chose into the box below.

BearShare's Port for incoming connections

Go ahead and open up Microsoft Windows XP Firewall. There are a variety of ways that you can get into the Windows XP Firewall. The method that we are going to list should work for most people. Start by clicking on the Start button on the bottom left of your screen and then click on Run. You should see the Run dialog box.


Type the word control into the Run dialog box and click the Ok button. This will take you to the Control Panel.


Click the Security Center link near the bottom left of the page.

Your control panel may look different. If it does, then find the link called Windows Firewall. This will take you straight to the firewall settings page.


Click the Windows Firewall link near the bottom right of the page.




Remove the checkmark from the Don't allow exceptions checkbox.

Click the Exceptions tab.


We will list a series of lines here that will show you exactly how to setup Windows XP Firewall's firewall for BearShare. Go ahead and enter the settings shown below into the Add Port menu.

Click the Add Port button to open up the Add a Port window.
Add A Port
    
Use these settings to open a port through Windows Firewall. To find the port number and protocol, consult the documentation for the program or service you want to use.
       
       
Name  
Port Number  
  UDP  
       
What are the risks of opening a port?
 
Click the Ok button when you have entered all of this data. When you are finished, click the Ok button to close the Windows Firewall. You're done!