How to Open Ports in ZoneAlarm Pro

A firewall is an essential utility to have when you connect to the Internet. It blocks hackers from accessing your data via your Internet connection. Your Firewall may, however, prevent particular programs from working properly, particularly if the program requires an Internet connection. Say, for example, you want to allow certain users to access your PC via the Internet. Your firewall will likely block this incoming traffic and prevent them from accessing your PC. You will have to remedy this by opening the particular Internet port through which the program will receive incoming traffic, and thereby giving authorized users access. A program such as ZoneAlarm Pro can be used for this. To learn how to do this, we'll use uTorrent, the popular Bittorent file-sharing program, as an example.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Determine which port you will need to open or forward to your PC. In uTorrent, you can use the "Preferences" window to get this done. Open the "Preferences" window and click on "Connection." Under the field that's labeled "Port used for incoming connections," write down the port that is shown in the connection screen. Uncheck the option for randomizing ports.
2. Open ZoneAlarm. Click on the "Program Control" button. In the window that opens, click on the "Programs" tab. This will bring up a list of all the programs installed on your PC.
3. Select the particular program you want to work with, and click on "Options," and then click the "Expert Rules" tab.
4. Click on the "Add" button so as to start adding ports. Go to the "Name" field and type in a name for the rule, for example uTorrent. In the "Comments" field, type what you want the rule to do.
5. Click on the "Modify" button. Choose "Add Protocol." Enter in the specific ports that you want to give access to your PC via your Internet connection. Choose the protocol type; for uTorrent you will use TCP.
6. Type in a description into the "Description" field. Under the "Destination Port" section select "Other" and enter in the ports that you want to allow. In this case, you will enter the port number that you wrote down in Step #1. Press "OK." On the "Expert Rules" page, click "Apply" and then click "OK." The ports you selected are now open, and you can close ZoneAlarm.

Tips & Warnings

• ZoneAlarm is a powerful application that was developed to protect your PC from hackers. It works by serving as a kind of gatekeeper, blocking access to your computer and only allowing in Internet traffic that you want. It is particularly useful for those times when you are away from your PC. In fact, it can be set up to activate automatically if your PC has been inactive for a period of time.
• The port that you noted down in Step 1 is the port that uTorrent uses to access your computer. Similarly, you can find out the incoming port that is being used by any other program.

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