Programmatically Configure Firewall

[miguelc]

I've seen some discussion on the ports needed to be open on a firewall for NI products to run. (see http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/FE6A63983AC8289E86256B22005A067A?OpenDocument)

I was wondering if anyone has had experience or knows a way to programmatically (from Labview) on a Windows Xp SP2 firewall:

1. Check if these ports are allowed.

2. Change firewall settings to allow these ports.

R. Michael Churchill

[dan_u]

Actually I hope nobody knows. If it was that easy (or even possible) to configure a firewall programmatically then every program could open any ports which would pretty much make the firewall useless...

Daniel

[miguelc]

Good point, that was a silly request. How about programmatically detecting if the Windows firewall is on? I have a VNA that won't communicate if the Windows firewall is on....

Michael

[miguelc]

I take it back, not a silly request. For future users searching the discussion forum, I found in the MSDN library that there is a Windows Firewall API that will let you disable, enable, or change port settings for the local Windows Firewall.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa364679.aspx

Now I just need to throw the methods I need into a DLL and I should be set...

Michael

[dan_u]

For me this is one more reason NOT to use Windows firewall...