Consider the following scenario:

• You have a computer that is running Windows Vista Starter, Windows Vista Home Basic, or Windows Vista Home Premium.
• You run any of the following commands to open ports in the firewall:
  • netsh firewall add portopening
  • netsh firewall set portopening
  • netsh firewall set service

However, these commands fail silently. Additionally, you may not receive an error message or a warning that indicates that the port has not been opened.

Note The netsh firewall context is supported only on computers that are running Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Business, and Windows Vista Enterprise.

• How to use the ?netsh advfirewall firewall? context instead of the ?netsh firewall? context to control Windows Firewall behavior in Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Vista
  The ‘netsh advfirewall firewall’ command-line context is available in Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Vista. It replaces ‘netsh firewall’ in earlier Windows operating systems.
  (tags: Netsh Firewall )
• James.Random() : Busting Vista Myths
  Busting Vista Myths one at a time. Learn how to manage Exchange Server 2007 from Vista, and your Blackberry devices as well.
  (tags: Exchange PR )

Keep reading →

The ‘netsh advfirewall firewall’ command-line context is available in Windows Server 2008 and in Windows Vista. It replaces ‘netsh firewall’ in earlier Windows operating systems. Keep reading →

On a Windows Vista-based computer, the netsh firewall command together with the profile=all parameter does not configure the public profile. For example, the following command opens local port 80 to TCP traffic for the domain profile and for the private profile. But the following command does not open the public profile:

netsh firewall add portopening protocol=TCP port=80 name=”Web Port” profile=all

The Windows Firewall Control Panel program only displays settings for the currently active profile. Therefore, if you run this command, and you then open the Windows Firewall Control Panel program when the public profile is active, you receive the following exception:

“Web Port” was not created for the public profile.

Note: This is expected behavior.

If you open the Windows Firewall Control Panel program when the domain profile or the private profile is active, you will receive the following exception:

“Web Port” was created.

You use the netsh advfirewall consec command together with the auth1 or auth2 authentication parameters to create a connection security rule that will work together with authentication methods that are specified on a Windows Vista-based computer. After you do this, the order of the values that you specify for the auth1 or auth2 parameters is not preserved in the connection security rule. Regardless of the order in which you specify the values for the auth1 and auth2 parameters, the connection security rule is created together with authentication parameters that are specified in the following order:

Auth1: ComputerKerb, ComputerCert, ComputerPSK, ComputerNTLM, Anonymous

Auth2: ComputerCert, UserKerb, UserCert, UserNTLM, Anonymous

For example, the following command creates a connection security rule that lists the ComputerKerb authentication method before the ComputerNTLM authentication method in the first authentication set:

netsh advfirewall consec add name=�Authentication Test� endpoint1=any endpoint2=any action=requestinrequestout auth1=computerntlm,computerkerb

Note: The netsh advfirewall consec set command also displays the same behavior when you use the auth1 or auth2 parameter with it.

In Windows Vista, the TCP/IPv4 default gateway address is deleted when you use the Netsh command-line tool to configure the network interface IP address for the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

For example, you type the following command at a command prompt:

netsh interface ipv4 set address name=”Local Area Connection” source=dhcp

If you check the default gateway address by using the ipconfig command, you see that the IPv4 default gateway address is deleted.

Note: This problem occurs if the network interface has already configured by using DHCP.

When you use the Netsh command-line scripting utility (Netsh.exe) to modify the network configuration, the command is not executed. Then, you receive an error message in Windows Vista.

For example, you type the following command at a command prompt:
Netsh interface set interface “Local Area Connection 2″ enable
Then, you receive one of the following error messages:

An interface with this name is not registered with the router
No more data is available

You run the following command to disable the TCP/IP Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) protocol on all network connections on a Windows Vista-based computer:

netsh interface IPV4 uninstall

You restart the computer, and then you view the properties of a network connection in Control Panel.

However, the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) check box is still selected. Therefore, the properties of the network connection incorrectly show that the TCP/IPv4 protocol is enabled. This behavior occurs even though you disabled the protocol from all network connections on the computer.

I‘ve seen mentioned in a few places that applications that use multiple network threads (BitTorrent clients, download managers, etc) don’t download files as quickly in Vista as they do in Windows XP. Most seem to attribute the difference to the new AutoTuning function in the TCP/IP stack. Keep reading →