How to turn the firewall on when ICS is on?

[Agustíne]

Hey guys i recently bought a PlayStation 3 slim. Now what i am doing is sharing my internet connection on the laptop with the gaming console. For this i had to turn on LAN internet connection sharing on. What i did was simply plug in the Ethernet cable up from the port of my desktop to the PlayStation 3. Well the only reason this worked was because i had turned off the Windows XP firewall and also had uninstalled my Zone alarm firewall. Now my question is how i can keep the firewall on when i have internet connection sharing switched on. The reason i ask is because i want to avoid any attacks by virus's or trojan's or any attacks while the connection is being shared with PS3. Please advice as i am doing this to play games such as Modern warfare 2 online on my PS3.

[Zachary]

Well i don't see why can't you just allow that particular connection to be made using your Zonealarm. Zonealarm is always asking for permissions when you try and make a new connection or rather when your system is doing it. Just allow it once that time if you want to do it again and again each time you do it. If not you can simply go in to the programs and give it the total trust, i think ni Zonelalarm there are 3 or 5 trust levels. So set it accordingly. That way your firewall is on and you can play your games without any worry about unnecessary connections or attacks against your system. Uninstalling zonealarm is a bad idea in my opinion in any case so reinstall it and let ICS make the connection.

[Milton.J]

Well you shouldn't have uninstalled Zone alarm since it was possible to include the new network in your Internet or trusted connections zone. Reinstall it and include the network in your trusted zone or internet zone depending upon your choice. Well you can add the program to trusted programs so that it can make a connection to share the internet with your PS3. Also to keep the Windows Firewall enabled , go to control panel and leave the firewall ON. Add any programs and service you want to use under exceptions. Also use the port number if possible which will make it better. This should work in my opinion.

[Snake08]

Well you will need to add the programs and port number to the exceptions list if you want to get this working. From the exceptions tab open the add port option. Name of the program should be 5223-PS3. Add the port number as 5223 to the exceptions of port numbers or the port's which will be allowed to make connections. Then click OK. You have to do this for TCP as well as one for UDP. Also make sure Files and Printer sharing is enabled and that you add that as well to the list of exceptions. Reinstall Zonealarm or any good firewall such as blackice back no your system instead of just depending on the Windows firewall and add exceptions or add the programs and services to the safe list whichever maybe the case in those firewalls.

[Spyrus]

Well along with the ports mentioned above, you will need to add something else as well. The procedure is same as mentioned above but i will explain it to you in the same just to make it as easy as possible. After adding the ports mentioned above, do the port adding again. Do the same procedure basically. This time add the port number 3478-3479. Also add the following port numbers, 3659-3660. Make sure printer and files sharing is enabled in both the firewalls you use and is allowed. You will need to add it to the exception list of both.

[Agustíne]

Thanks a lot guys for all your responses. I created the exceptions one by one as explained by the replies given. I created exceptions for 5223, 3478, 3479, 3659, and 3660 in the lineup you guys mentioned it using the directions given. I made sure that the exceptions were made for both TCP and UDP. I also made sure file and printer sharing was enabled. I didn't know how to make port exceptions in Zonealarm so i didn't bother to reinstall it. I stayed up playing modern warfare till late last night without any worries. Thanks for all your help guys, much appreciated.