Technology Review for Deploying Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

Updated: December 7, 2009

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security combines a host-based firewall and an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)-compliant implementation of Internet Protocol security (IPsec).

As a host-based firewall, Windows Firewall with Advanced Security runs on each computer that is running Windows Vista® or a later version of Windows to provide local protection from network attacks that might pass through your perimeter network firewall or originate from inside your organization.

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security also provides IPsec-based computer-to-computer connection security which lets you protect the network data by setting rules that require authentication, integrity checking, or encryption when your computers exchange data.

Windows Firewall with Advanced Security works with both Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and IPv6 traffic.

This section of the guide provides a brief review of these features to support your understanding of the scenarios that you examine in later sections of this guide.

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