How to configure Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to use BranchCache

What is branchCache? BranchCache™ is a new feature in Windows® 7 and Windows Server® 2008 R2 that can reduce wide area network (WAN) or bandwidth utilization and enhance network application responsiveness when users access content in a central office from branch office locations. When you enable BranchCache, a copy of the content that is retrieved from the Web server or file server is cached within the branch office. If another client in the branch requests the same content, the client can download it directly from the local branch network without needing to retrieve the content by using the Wide Area Network (WAN).

How Branchcache works? When a Windows 7 Client from a branch office request data such as WSUS content to a head office Server then server check authentication and authorise data to pass on to the client. This is an ordinary communication happens without branchcache also.

But with branchcache, The client uses the hashes in the metadata to search for the file in the Hosted Cache server. Because this is the first time any client has retrieved the file, it is not already cached on the local network. Therefore, the client retrieves the file directly from the content server. The Hosted Cache server connects to the client and retrieves the set of blocks that it does not have cached.

When a second Windows 7 client from the same branch requests the same WSUS content from the content server or WSUS server. The content server authorizes the user/client and returns content identifiers. The second client uses these identifiers to request the data from the Hosted Cache server residing in branch. This time, it does not retrieve data from the DFS share residing in head office.

To configure a Web server or an application server that uses the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) protocol, you must install the BranchCache feature using server manager. To configure a file server to use BranchCache, you must install the BranchCache for Network Files feature and configure the server using Group Policy. This article discuss and show how to configure WSUS to use  branchcache. The followings are the steps involve in head office and Branch Offices.

Head Office:

1. Install and configure back end SQL Server
2. Create DFS share
3. Install and configure front end WSUS Server
4. Configure GPO for WSUS client

Branch Office:

1. Install and configure Branchcache File Server
2. Configure GPO for Branchcache
3. Install and configure front end WSUS server
4. Configure GPO for WSUS client

Installing BranchCache File Server

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager.

2. Right-click Roles and then click Add Roles.

3. In the Add Features Wizard, select File Server and BranchCache for network files and then click Next.

4. In the Confirm Installation Selections dialog box, click Install.

5. In the Installation Results dialog box, confirm that BranchCache installed successfully, and then click Close.

Using Group Policy to configure BranchCache

1. Open the Group Policy Management Console. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Group Policy Management Console.

2. Select the domain in which you will apply the Group Policy object, or select Local Computer Policy.

3. Select New from the Action menu to create a new Group Policy object (GPO).

4. Choose a name for the new GPO and click OK.

5. Right-click the GPO just created and choose Edit.

6. Click Computer Configuration, point to Policies, Administrative Templates, Network, and then click Lanman Server.

7. Double-click Hash Publication for BranchCache.

8. Click Enabled.

9. Under Options, choose one of the following Hash publication actions:

a. Allow hash publication for all file shares.

b. Allow hash publication for file shares tagged with “BranchCache support.”

c. Disallow hash publication on all file shares.

10. Click OK.

Using the Registry Editor to configure disk use for stored identifiers

1. Open an elevated command prompt (click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator).

2. At the command prompt, type Regedit.exe, and then press Enter.

3. Navigate to HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Service\LanmanServer\Parameters.

4. Right-click the HashStorageLimitPercent value, and then click Modify.

5. In the Value box, type the percentage of disk space that you would like BranchCache to use. Click OK.

6. Close the Registry Editor.

Setting the BranchCache support tag on a file share

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Share and Storage Management.

2. Right-click a share and then click Properties.

3. Click Advanced.

4. On the Caching tab, select Only the files and programs that users specify are available offline.

5. Select Enable BranchCache, and then click OK.

6. Click OK, and then close the Share and Storage Management Console.

To replicate cryptographic data

1. Open an elevated command prompt (click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator). 2. At the command prompt, type netsh branchcache set key passphrase=“MY_PASSPHRASE”, and then press Enter. Choose a phrase known only to you. Repeat this process using the same phrase on all computers that are participating in the cluster.

Client configuration using Group Policy

1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and click Group Policy Management Console.

2. In the console tree, select the domain in which you will apply the GPO.

3. Create a new GPO by selecting New from the Action menu.

4. Choose a name for the new GPO, and then click OK.

5. Right click the GPO you created and choose Edit.

6. Click Computer Configuration, point to Policies, Administrative Templates: Policy definitions (ADMX files) retrieved from the local machine, Network, and then click BranchCache.

7. Double-click Turn on BranchCache.

8. Click Enabled, and then click OK.

9. To use Distributed Cache mode, double-click Turn on BranchCache – Distributed Caching mode, click Enabled, and then click OK.  or

To use Hosted Cache mode, double-click Turn on BranchCache – Hosted cache mode, click Enabled, and then click OK.

10. To enable BranchCache for SMB traffic, double-click BranchCache for network files, click Enabled, select a latency value under Options, and then click OK.

Configuring a Branch WSUS server to use BranchCache

In addition to enabling BranchCache in your environment, the WSUS server must be configured to store update files locally (both the update metadata and the update files are downloaded and stored locally on the WSUS server). This ensures that the clients get the update files from the WSUS server rather than directly from Microsoft Update.

Install SQL Server 2005/2008 with Management Studio Express on the back-end computer

1. Click Start, point at All Programs, point at SQL Server 2005, point at Configuration Tools, and select SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.

2. Choose Surface Configuration for Services and Connections.

3. In the left window, click the Remote Connections node.

4. Select Local and remote connections and then select Using TCP/IP only.

5. Click OK to save the settings.

To ensure administrative permissions on SQL Server

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio (click Start, click Run, and then type sqlwb).

2. Connect to the SQL Engine on the server where SQL Server 2005 was installed in Step 1.

3. Select the Security node and then select Logins.

4. The right pane will show a list of the accounts that have database access. Check that the person who is going to install WSUS 3.0 on the front-end computer has an account in this list.

5. If the account does not exist, then right-click the Logins node, select New Login, and add the account.

6. Set up this account for the roles needed to set up the WSUS 3.0 database. The roles are either dbcreator plus diskadmin, or sysadmin. Accounts belonging to the local Administrators group have the sysadmin role by default.

Install Branch WSUS Server

To install WSUS on the front-end computer At the command prompt, navigate to the folder containing the WSUS Setup program, and type:

WSUSSetup.exe /q FRONTEND_SETUP=1 SQLINSTANCE_NAME=server\instance CREATE_DATABASE=0

Here, Server\instance is the name of the remote SQL server that is holding the instance of WSUS database. If you do not want silent installation then don’t use /q switch and follow WSUS installation link

Important! Microsoft recommend 1GB free space for Systems Partition and 30GB for WSUS contents. But this minimum recommended space will create havoc when WSUS log, database log and content grow over the years. So, I used 50GB as systems partition and 100GB as WSUS contents in DFS share.

To configure the proxy server on WSUS front-end servers

1. In the WSUS administration console, select Options, then Update Source and Proxy Server.

2. Select the Proxy Server tab, then enter the proxy server name, port, user name, domain, and password, then click OK.

3. Repeat this procedure on all the front-end WSUS servers.

To specify where updates are stored

1. In the left pane of the WSUS Administration console, click Options.

2. In Update Files and Languages, click the Update Files tab.

3. If you want to store updates in WSUS, select the Store update files locally on this server check box.

To specify whether updates are downloaded during synchronization or when the update is approved

1. In the left pane of the WSUS Administration console, click Options.

2. In Update Files and Languages, click the Update Files tab.

3. If you want to download only metadata about the updates during synchronization, select the Download updates to this server only when updates are approved check box.

To specify language options

1. In the left pane of the WSUS Administration console, click Options.

2. In Update Files and Languages, click the Update Languages tab.

3. In the Advanced Synchronization Options dialog box, under Languages, select one of the following language options, and then click OK.

4. Select Download updates only in these languages: This means that only updates targeted to the languages you select will be downloaded during synchronization.

How to configure automatic updates by using Group Policy

Log on to Domain Controller using Administrative Privilege. Open GPO management Console>Select Organisational unit>Right client>create and link a new GPO> Name it as WSUS policy>right click>Edit. Go to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Updates\

Now Specify Client target group, Intranet update server location i.e. http://servername:8530 , update schedule, installation schedule.

To set up a DFS share

Note:This DFS share will be used by all front end WSUS servers.

1. Go to Start, point at All Programs, point at Administrative Tools, and click Distributed File System.

2. You will see the Distributed File System management console. Right-click the Distributed File System node in the left pane and click New Root in the shortcut menu.

3. You will see the New Root Wizard. Click Next.

4. In the Root Type screen, select Stand-alone root as the type of root, and click Next.

5. In the Host Server screen, type the name of the host server for the DFS root or search for it with Browse, and then click Next.

6. In the Root Name screen, type the name of the DFS root, and then click Next.

7. In the Root Share screen, select the folder that will serve as the share, or create a new one. Click Next.

8. In the last screen of the wizard, review your selections before clicking Finish.

9. You will see an error message if the Distributed File System service has not yet been started on the server. You can start it at this time.

10. Make sure that the domain account of each of the front-end WSUS servers has change permissions on the root folder of this share.

Important! If you are using a DFS share, be careful when uninstalling WSUS from one but not all of the front-end servers. If you allow the WSUS content directory to be deleted, this will affect all the WSUS front-end servers.

To configure IIS for remote access on the front-end WSUS servers

1. On each of the servers, go to Start, point at All Programs, point at Administrative Tools, and click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

2. You will see the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager management console.

3. Click the server node, then the Web Sites node, then the node for the WSUS Web site (either Default Web Site or WSUS Administration).

4. Right-click the Content node and select Properties.

5. In the Content Properties dialog box, click the Virtual Directory tab. In the top frame you will see The content for this resource should come from:

6. Select A share located on another computer and fill in the UNC name of the share.

7. Click Connect As, and enter the user name and password that can be used to access that share.

8. Be sure to follow these steps for each of the front-end WSUS servers that are not on the same machine as the DFS share.

To move the content directories on the front-end WSUS servers

1. Open a command window.

2. Go to the WSUS tools directory on the WSUS server:

   cd \Program Files\Update Services\Tools

3. Type the following command:

   wsusutil movecontent DFSsharename logfilename

   where DFSsharename is the name of the DFS share to which the content should be moved, and logfilename is the name of the log file.

To configure Network Load Balancing

1. Enable Network load balancing

• a) Click Start, then Control Panel, Network Connections, Local Area Connection, and click Properties.
• b) Under This connection uses the following items, you may see an entry for Network Load Balancing. If you do not, click Install, then (on the Select Network Component Type screen) select Service, then click Add, then (on the Select Network Service screen) select Network Load Balancing, then OK.
• c) On the Local Area Connection Properties screen, select Network Load Balancing, and then click OK.

2. On the Local Area Connection Properties screen, select Network Load Balancing, and then click Properties.

3. On the Cluster Parameters tab, fill in the relevant information (the virtual IP address to be shared among the front end computers, and the subnet mask). Under Cluster operation mode, select Unicast.

4. On the Host Parameters tab, make sure that the unique host identifier is different for each member of the cluster.

5. On the Port Rules tab, make sure that there is a port rule specifying single affinity (the default). (Affinity is the term used to define how client requests are to be directed. Single affinity means that requests from the same client will always be directed to the same cluster host.)

6. Click OK, and return to the Local Area Connection Properties screen.

7. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties, and then click Advanced.

8. On the IP Settings tab, under IP addresses, add the virtual IP of the cluster (so that there will be two IP addresses). This should be done on each cluster member.

9. On the DNS tab, clear the Register this connection’s addresses in DNS checkbox. Make sure that there is no DNS entry for the IP address.

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Relevant Article: Install and configure WSUS—Step by Step

Support for Windows XP SP2,Windows 2000 and Windows Vista ends this year

Windows XP was first released on October 25, 2001 and over 400 million copies were in use in January 2006, according to an estimate in that month by an IDC analyst. It was succeeded by Windows Vista, which was released to volume license customers on November 8, 2006 and worldwide to the general public on January 30, 2007. Direct OEM and retail sales of Windows XP ceased on June 30, 2008. Microsoft continued to sell XP through their System Builders (smaller OEMs who sell assembled computers) program until January 31, 2009. Windows XP may continue to be available as these sources run through their inventory or by purchasing Windows Vista Ultimate or Business and then downgrading to Windows XP.

Updating your Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista based machine before the end of mainstream support dates will ensure that your machine stay supported and receive security updates. Migrating to Windows 7 provides the longest support lifecycle for your organization helping to ensure protection, support, and timely updates.

Support for Windows Vista RTM ends on April 13, 2010 . To help ensure your Windows Vista PCs stay secure and up to date, make sure they are running Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Service Pack 2 (SP2).
Support for Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2000 ends July 13, 2010. If you are running Windows XP, stay more secure by moving to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) or migrating to Windows 7.

Microsoft Continuously improve operating systems for their customer. Service Pack, hotfix and Support comes with every operating systems. We are close to finish a chapter. Each phase of technology pass by and leave its legacy. Those who still wants to stay on with Windows XP. Deploy Windows XP SP3 in your organisation to keep it safe and up-to-date. For more information, you may visit Windows Service Pack Road Map and Windows Road Map . That was past and to see the future visit Windows 7 Technical Library Roadmap .

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Step by Step: Volume Activation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008

What is Microsoft product activation? Activation is a method of verification that Microsoft Windows Product you have bought is genuine and comply with copyright laws i.e. it checks that you are not using a counterfeit product. Simply Microsoft wants to know did you pay right amount of $$ for the product you are using. Volume Activation is used for enterprise level users who want to deploy Microsoft products such as Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 in large scale in an organisation or a company. There are two type of Volume Activation—Key Management Service (KMS) and Multiple Activation Key (MAK)—that allow Volume Licensing customers to activate Volume License editions of the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. When planning to use Volume Activation, an organization must choose KMS, MAK, or any combination of the two. The activation methods chosen depend on the needs of the organization and the network infrastructure. You don’t need to be a local Administrator in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 for activation. However, for volume activation you must be a domain admin because you need to access domain groups, computers and GPO. Windows eliminates the User Account Control (UAC) prompt during activation, enabling any user who has a standard user account to activate Windows on that computer. However, this change does not allow standard users to remove Windows from the activated state.

Typical Activation Warning:

Configure Firewall in Windows7 and Windows server 2008 for Volume Activation to pass through:

You have to configure the following firewall in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008  master pc before you deploy large scale using windows deployment services. By default these firewall is blocked restraining  windows 7 and windows server 2008 to communicate with activation site.

Log on Windows 7 or Windows Sever 2008. Control Panel>Windows Firewall and Advanced Settings>Allow Program or feature pass through Windows Firewall>Select Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)>check domain, public and private>Click Ok.

Go back to Windows Firewall and click on Advanced Settings>Click Filter by Group>Click WMI>Select WMI Async-In>Double Click on WMI Async-In>General Tab>Check Enable and Allow>Advanced Tab>Check Public,Private,Domain>Select allow edge traversal>Apply>ok.

 

Configure Windows Firewall using GPO:

Log on to domain controller as an domain admin. Open GPO management console from Admin Tools. Select Specific Windows 7 and Windows Sever 2008 organisational unit where you want to modify Windows Firewall. Right click on that organizational unit>click edit. Go to Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates> Network>Network Connections>Windows Firewall>Domain Profile & Standard Profile>Select and Modify Windows Firewall: Allow remote administration exception>Select Enable and Type “*” in the box.

 

Windows7 Volume Activation:

You must have MAK  license to do the following. Install windows AIK in Admin PC. Go to All Program>Microsoft Windows AIK>VAMT 1.2 >VAMT

 

Provide MAK Product Key and Validate. Click Add to add MAK.

Select Appropriate Columns to view computer info.

Click Action>Add Computer>Type Computer Group>Select domain>Check gather info>Click ok.

Now select all windows 7 computer>right click>MAK activate.

Good Luck and happy Australia Day

Microsoft References:

Licensing Centre

Troubleshooting VA

How to Choose the Right Volume License Key for Windows

Windows Firewall

Windows Server 2008: Install and configure windows media services 2008—step by step

Windows Media Services 2008 is an industry standard platform for streaming or on-demand audio/video content for windows XP and Windows 7 clients over private or public networks. Windows Media Services 2008 manages one or more Windows Media servers running on the Windows Server 2008 operating system. Client machine can play contents using Windows Media Player or Silverlight. Windows Media Services 2008 server capable of proxying, caching, or redistributing content.  Custom media content that have been developed using the Windows Media Software Development Kit (SDK) can also be deployed through media services. Windows Media Services 2008 contains a new, built-in cache/proxy plug-in that you can use to configure your Windows Media server either as a cache/proxy server or a reverse-proxy server.

System requirement:

Windows Server 2008 x86 or x64

IIS for web administration and content distribution

Windows Media Services x86 or x64

Media services server must be a member of domain

Windows 7 or Windows XP client

Windows Media Player or Silver light

Installation:

Download Windows Media Services. Install update on server as follows.

 

 

Configuration:

 

Here, I have shown config of IP address authorization property. You have to configure rest of them according to your need.

Install Web Certificate and Configure SSL:

Publish Content:

Expand publishing points>select content>select announce tab on right side pan>click run unicast announce wizard

CNAME Record:

Add CNAME record (Example:  media.yourdomain.com.au points windows media server) in DNS server .

Test Media Services:

Log on to a client machine

Open IE 6 or later>type https://media.yourdomain.com.au/test or http://media.yourdomain.com.au/test (here, /test is a test content uploaded in media services server)

Further Study:

Windows Media Player 12

Windows Media Services

Windows Deployment Services: How to create deployable bootable ISO using WDS and AIK

A bootable ISO is created from an existing WDS boot image and capture image that contains Windows PE and the WDS client can be stored on DVD or CD making it easier to deploy images to older systems or on heterogeneous networks that have PXE issues. To accomplish discover image process, you must have a working WDS in network and Windows 7 AIK installed in WDS server. Log on to WDS server using domain admin credential and follow the screen shots.

Create a folder in e:\DiscoverBootImage or whatever drive you have and provide FQDN of WDS

Now you have e:\DiscoverBootImage\WDSDiscover.WIM . Open Start menu>Microsoft Windows AIK>Deployment Tools Command Prompt>Type CopyPe x86 E:\DiscoverBootImage\Winpe and wait for completion

  

In the same command prompt type

Copy /y E:\DiscoverBootImage\WDSDiscover.WIM
E:\DiscoverBootImage\WinPE\ISO\Sources\Boot.wim

To write WIM file to ISO type following

oscdimg –n –bE:\DiscoverBootImage\Winpe\ISO\Boot\etfsboot.com
E:\DiscoverBootImage\Winpe\ISO E:\DiscoverBootImage\boot.ISO

Now you have created ISO boot image. Burn this ISO on a CD or DVD and boot client machine using this cd and deploy images.

 

Windows Deployment Services: How to configure Legacy or Mixed Mode or Native Mode for legacy image and Windows 7

Windows Deployment Services (WDS) running on Windows 2008 provides many of the same features and functions of RIS, Automated Deployment Services, and Windows Server 2003 SP2 combined.  Two of the distinct features of Windows 2008 Windows Deployment Services are that both server and desktop operating systems can be deployed and images can be deployed using multicast communications. With the release of Windows 7 AIK, MDT 2010, ACT and MAP, Microsoft deployment service and automations are more robust and powerful tools then its predecessor RIS. 

However, if you are in a situation that you don’t want to get rid of RIS image but you want to enjoy benefits of WDS. In this case, there are three different modes of WDS within Windows Server 2003: Legacy, Mixed, and Native. You have the option to choose both legacy image and Windows 7 WIM image in a mixed mode environment. If RIS had previously been deployed with existing images, the upgrade took the existing RIS (RIPREP and RISETUP) images and placed them in the Legacy Image folder within the WDS MMC snap-in and upon your initial launch of the WDS console, the administrators were prompted to choose whether the WDS system would run in Legacy or Mixed mode. After a few more simple configurations, existing RIS images would work successfully in the environment. The entire upgrade process can be done in existing RIS server or you can re-home RIS into a new server. In this article, I will write, how to run WDS and AIK in windows server 2003. Also, I will show upgrading Windows Server 2003 SP2 RIS server into Windows Server 2008. WDS, AIK and MDT are available in Microsoft download centre and free to obtain. 

Prerequisite: 

Windows Server 2003 SP1 

.NET Framework 2.0 

MSXML6 

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 or Windows Deployment Services for Windows Server 2003 

Windows Server 2008 SP2 (for scenario#2) 

Warning: Backup DHCP, RIS images, RIS answer files to make sure you are safe. 

Scenario#1: Running WDS on Windows Server 2003 SP1 

   

You can use Windows Vista AIK to install WDS on Windows Server 2003 SP1. Alternatively, You can install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 in RIS server that will automatically install WDS.   

  

 

Open WDS for the first time using Administrative tools>WDS or WDS legacy. you have the option to choose WDS mixed mode or legacy. Do NOT open WDS legacy because here your intension is to use mixed mode. so Choose Windows Deployment Services. 

        

Once you finished installing WDS on Windows Server 2003 SP1, follow my previous posting on “  How to deploy custom windows 7 using windows deployment services (WDS) 2008 ” . I have elaborately written how to install and configure WDS, capture custom Windows 7 and deploy image in that posting. It would be redundant to write again. 

Scenario#2: Upgrading RIS server/WDS mixed mode server from Windows server 2003 to Windows server 2008 

Direct Upgrade from Windows Server 2003 RIS server or WDS legacy/mixed mode to Windows Server 2008 is NOT supported.  Consider that you have a working RIS/WDS mixed mode environment and have images that will need to be maintained, these images can be manually imported into a Windows 2008 WDS server using a capture image and a detailed process. 

1. Deploy the legacy images to master pc using the legacy RIS server or Mixed mode WDS Server. 

2. Prepare the newly deployed master pc using the Sysprep utility and, as required, the Setup Manager utility to prepare the system for imaging. 

3. Boot the master pc that will be captured, using PXE boot. 

4. Select the capture image when the list of available images is presented. 

5. Follow the capture imaging prompts to create the new custom install image. 

6. Redo step1 to step5 to capture all images 

Organise captured images into WDS server by setting up Image group and linking WDS unattended answer file. 

Using WDSUTIL Command  

To determine which operating mode the server is currently in, run the command 

WDSUTIL /get-server /show:config 

To change the server mode from Legacy to Mixed  Run the command

WDSUTIL /Initialize-Server /RemInst:E:\reminst (consider e:\reminst is the location of RIS folder)

To change the server mode from mixed mode to native run the command
WDSUTIL /SET-Server /ForceNative

To convert a RIPREP image to .wim format by using the WDSUTIL

WDSUTIL /convert-riprepimage /filepath:<path to RIPREP image .sif file> /destinationimage /filepath:<path and name of .wim image> 

you can use the following with above command:

To give the new .wim image a name in the metadata, use /Name:<name>.

To give the new .wim image a description in the metadata, use /Description:<description>.

To convert the original RIPREP image, rather than a copy, use /InPlace.

To determine behavior when the image file specified in /DestinationImage already exists, use /Overwrite:{Yes|No|Append}. Yes will overwrite the .wim file, No will cause an error, and Append will append the new image to the existing .wim file

To add WIM file to the server, type the following where <filepath> is the full path to the new .wim file

WDSUTIL /add-image /imagefile:<filepath> /imagetype:install

Once you convert WDS into Native mode then you are ready to upgrade Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008. Make sure you got compatible hardware (Processor, RAM and disk space) to install Windows Server 2008. Follow the screen shot to upgrade windows. 

   

 

Further References: 

Microsoft WDS 

Move RIS from one server to another 

MDT 

WDS answer file

Understanding Windows Firewall for Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7

The best way to justify a local firewall in windows server 2008 and windows 7 is to put another layer of security in place and to make your computer happy to maintain communication with internet. In ordinary terms, windows firewall is in place to protect you from bad guys in internet and allow good stuff in your computer. Windows firewall is greatly improved for both home users and enterprise user even though home user will not be able customize windows firewall because this is a bit geeki stuff. However, default firewall will be in place and UAC will pop up asking consent whether you want to allow/disallow this or that to happen. Here, I am going to talk about enterprise users who will consider deploying windows firewall to protect themselves from malicious software, spyware and attacks from internet.

The new graphical interface is for managing the Windows Firewall locally and through Active Directory group policies. Another improvement, I would like to mention here is windows services control through Windows Firewall. I had nightmare with conficker virus that spread faster then rocket using port 135-139 and use windows services to run it continuously in windows SP SP2 and disable active directory account policy. In conficker virus situation, scvhost was compromised. Windows Service Hardening will help to reduce the impact in several ways: The firewall will block abnormal behaviour such as a service that does not need to access the network trying to send out HTTP traffic. Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 make intelligent use of outbound filtering by blocking system services from initiating network connections except for what they require to function properly. Inbound filtering is what will stop malicious network traffic such as Nimda, Slammer, Sasser, conficker, Blaster, or anything else that sends unwanted network traffic or suspicious traffic to windows server. New Windows firewall also integrates with Active Directory users, group and computers and support IPSec and tcp/ip version6. To manage the new Windows Firewall via Group Policy, simply open Group Policy management>select specific group policy object>right click>click edit then navigate to Computer Configuration>Windows Settings>Security Settings>Windows Firewall with Advanced Security in the Group Policy.

Windows Firewall Screenshots: