How to allow an application to access the Internet or LAN in Windows 10, 8.1 and Windows 7

Normally, the programs installed on the computer have access to the Internet and the LAN network by default, or they request such access when they are started for the first time: a Windows 10, 8.1 or Windows 7 firewall dialog box appears with the corresponding request . However, if in your case a program does not have access to the Internet, it will have to be fixed.

This tutorial details how to allow a program to access the Internet on a computer or laptop that uses Windows' built-in firewall, as well as additional information that may be useful in the context of the topic at hand. A related topic: How to prevent a program from accessing the Internet in Windows.

Allow an application to access the Internet and local network in Windows Firewall settings

To allow any program to access the Internet through Windows' built-in tools, just follow these simple steps, which will require you to have administrator rights on your computer:

1. Go to Control Panel - Windows Defender Firewall. Alternatively, you can press Win + R on your keyboard, and type firewall.cpl. and hit Enter (useful here: Useful Commands in the Run Win + R Dialog).
2. In the window that opens, click on "Allow interaction with an application or component in Windows Defender Firewall" on the left.
3. Click the "Change settings" button, find the program you want in the list, and check the networks you want the program to grant access to. If you are not sure what to select, it is usually safe to grant access on both private and public networks (but this is not always the case, if you are concerned about what the program may be doing on the network, consider this).
4. If your program is not listed, click the "Allow another application" button at the bottom and specify the path to the executable file of the desired program.

Typically, for Windows built-in network security, the steps outlined should be sufficient. As a last resort, you can disable the Windows firewall entirely, but I don't recommend doing so.

For more information.

If the previous steps did not help to allow the program to access the Internet or the local network, consider the following points:

• If you have a third-party antivirus or firewall installed on your computer, it may be interfering with network access. Try disabling it temporarily and see if that solves the problem. If you fixed it, you can re-enable it, and then browse the settings to find the location that allows you to change the Internet access settings of the programs.
• Sometimes it may be that a program is trying to access a server on the Internet that no longer exists. In this case, you can report that you cannot access the network. In this situation, it is unlikely that you can do anything.
• If you have blocked access to any sites in the hosts file, this may also affect the program's access to the Internet. Even if you did not do it manually, but installed a program without a full license, access to your sites may have been automatically blocked during installation. Read more about: Windows 10 hosts file – how to change and restore (also applies to other versions of the system).
• The use of a VPN, proxy can also affect the ability of the program to access the Internet. Here it can be useful: How to disable proxy in Windows.
• Just in case, you can look into your Windows firewall settings in high security mode and see if there are any inbound and outbound connection rules relative to your program.

Most likely one of the methods will work for the problem, if not please describe the situation in the comments, in as much detail as possible, I will try to help.