How to Open Ports in XP & Win7

Computers use ports to interface with networks, including the Internet. Ports act like doors that separate your computer from the rest of the world's network. Your computer's ports can be opened or closed, which respectively allows or disallows data to be transmitted to and from your computer. However, blocked ports can prevent a program from working as intended, and in that case the port(s) must be opened manually through Windows Firewall. Fortunately, learning how to open ports and close ports is very easy and simple! Every program uses its own set of ports, so you'll need to do a little research and find out which ports your program requires so you can open them.

Steps

For Windows XP

1. 1
   Click Start and then My Network Places.
   
   
   
   
   • Alternatively, if you have a My Network Places on your desktop, you can right click on it and select Properties.
2. 2
   Click on View Network Connections.
   
   
   
3. 3
   Right click on the adapter or device that you use to connect to the Internet and select Properties.
   
   
   
   
4. 4
   Click Settings under the Advanced tab.
   
   
   
   
   • Don't see a Settings button? That means that Internet Connection Firewall (ICP) is disabled and all of your ports are already open.
5. 5
   Open a new port by clicking Add. Input short but useful identifier for the Description, like "(video game name) Port Open".
   
   
   
   
6. 6
   Enter 127.0.0.1 for the Name or IP address of the computer hosting this service on your network.
   
   
   
   
7. 7
   Enter the port you'd like to open for both External port and Internal port.
8. 8
   Select UDP or TCP. Your choice will depend on what type of port you need to open, and that will be dependent on the program.
   
   
   
   

For Windows 7

1. 1
   Click on Start and open the Control Panel.
   
   
   
   
2. 2
   Click on Windows Firewall.
   
   
   
   
3. 3
   Click on Advanced Settings.
   
   
   
   
4. 4
   Click on Inbound Rules, located in the left column.
   
   
   
   
5. 5
   Click on New Rule, located in the right column.
   
   
   
   
6. 6
   Select Port as your rule type. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
7. 7
   Select UDP or TCP. Your choice will depend on what type of port you need to open, and that will be dependent on the program. Select Specific local ports and enter the port you'd like to open. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
8. 8
   Select Allow the connection. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
9. 9
   Select all of the checkboxes. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
10. 10
    Input a short but useful identifier for the Name, like "(video game name) Port Open". Enter a Description if you want, although it's optional. Click Finish.
    
    
    
    

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Record Your Desktop to Video Using Total Screen Recorder

Have you ever wanted to take a video of your desktop?

 

Download Here

1. When the download has finished, click “Run” to launch the Total Screen Recorder setup wizard.Follow the steps shown in the setup wizard.
   
   
   
   
   
2. 4
   Look for the Total Screen Recorder icon whenever you want to record your video!
   
   
   
   
   
3. 5
   Once the installation is finished, the program will be launched automatically (if not, double click the Total Screen Recorder to start).
   • It comes up with a “Tips of day” windows showing the using tips of Total Screen Recorder, just click “close” button to continue or “next” to see other tips.
     
     
     
     
     
   • The interface is nice looking and very easy to use. In fact, after all the settings have been made you can give up the main window and work with the program only by using the shortcuts.
     
     
     
     
     
4. 6
   In the recorder option box, you can configure the record option, including record audio, capture mouse cursor, hide when recording or blink when recording. You also could set the recording hotkey, region to capture and output folder for auto save recordings.
   
   
   
   
   
5. 7
   The encoder box will let you choose video and audio compressor, and also the output format, Total Screen Recorder support output the record video as avi, wmv, swf, flv. (If you want to output a video with high quality, we suggest you output as avi file. If you want to output a video with small size, we suggest you output as flv file).
   
   
   
   
   
6. 8
   Playback rates are adjustable and the user can set the frames capturing per second (the higher the value, the smoother the playback and the larger the file).
   
   
   
   
   
7. 9
   In the last option box, you will find that this software could also work in sneak mode, so that you could monitor what has happen in your pc when you leave.
8. 10
   You could also let Total Screen Recorder start or stop recording automatically, just choose "Recorder > Set Timers", or click the "Set Timers" button from toolbar. In "Set Timers" dialog, check and set start or stop time you want, Total Screen Recorder will start record when the auto-start timer triggered, and stop the recording at the stop time you set. To disable timers, just select "Recorder > Set Timers", or click the "Set Timers" button from toolbar, and uncheck start or stop timers.
   
   
   
   
   

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