Open a range of ports on Windows Firewall

Needed to open a big range of ports on Windows Firewall on one of my web boxes. Via the GUI you can only do one port at a time. But run this at the command prompt to add a range:

FOR /L %I IN (5001,1,5201) DO netsh firewall add portopening TCP %I "Passive FTP"%I

This opens ports 5001 to 5201, and names them 'Passive FTP'.

Found this here.

Oh, takes time, like a port or two a second, so if you have a wide range it's going to take some time.

Comments

[User]

This worked excellently, especially for opening the 100+ ports needed for the Blizzard Downloader required to update World of Warcraft! Thank you very much!!!

[David Eedle]

You are very welcome. Thanks for letting me know this was useful!

[Deepti]

This works perfect - thanks

[Tab]

Awesome, now how do i delete a range of ports i created incorrectly? DOH

[David Eedle]

Ah, now that's good a question, and I'm sorry I don't know. Haven't had the need!

David

[Abner Diaz]

If you change your mind, it is (all in one line):

FOR /L %I IN (5001,1,5201) DO netsh firewall delete portopening TCP %I

[Joe]

Very helpful, many thanks

[Clark]

Will this also work for UDP ports?:

FOR /L %I IN (5001,1,5201) DO netsh firewall add portopening UDP %I "Passive FTP"%I ?

[David Eedle]

Clark, I suspect so although I haven't tried.

[David]

Clark, I just tried it for UDP and it works.

[Ed]

Nice. Thanks I've been setting up teh Windows Firewall on a 2003 DC that was wide-open. This, along with Rpccfg.exe is helping that gosh-durn dynamic-port-all-have-to-be-open-for-RPC-apps-to-work thing.

[steadmanward]

dude im having problems opening ports 28000-29100
for my windows firewall. i play msn gaming zone and its blocked all of the suddden, cant find help anywhere I have windows xp i dont know alot about computers, feel free to respond or even call me 334-380-5510

[Devin]

If you wish to narrow the scope of the port opening (instead of leaving it open for the entire internet) you can do it like this:

for /L %i in (5001,1,5201) DO netsh firewall add portopening protocol=TCP %i name="ExceptionName"%i scope=custom addresses=10.1.1.0/255.255.255.0,64.25.16.0/255.255.255.0

[steve romey]

I cannot open ports 28000 to 28809 as well to play backgammon. I read info above where do I type this? Thank you for your help.

[David Eedle]

Hi Steve

You need to type this at the Command Prompt. Usually you can open this:

Click Start
Click Accessories
Click Command Prompt

It should open a small black window, which is the command screen. It's used for typing commands directly to your computer.

Hope that helps

David

[nathan]

Can this be done for any port range? just wondering

[David Eedle]

Hello Nathan

Yes, you can use this for any range of ports. My example above is for 5001 to 5201. You can substitute your own values for these.

David

[Paolo]

Thank you so much, I had to open passive ftp ports in my server, it would have taken years!
Thanks again

[AJ]

I came here looking for a way to open a large group of ports for my passive FTP server. Imagine the irony! The ports in your example almost lined up with them as well, I copy/pasted your command and altered 2 numbers and hit go. You rock!

[David Eedle]

Glad it worked for you AJ.

[Flopot]

Merci pour la tip :D

[Abhishek]

Dear Sir,

Pls Help me how to open Port 5001, 5002,5003,5004 and 1443 in windows 2003 server.pls help as soon as possible

Thanks in advance

[David Eedle]

Hi Abhishek

With such a small number of ports, why not just open them individually via Windows Firewall?

David

[Abhishek]

Dear Sir,
we tried to add all the port numbers locally in the Server and Client computers still some of the ports are not opening. We added all the port number in the Windows fire wall – add port option. We are checking the port open condition by the below mentioned utility command

“ Telnet ”
– please suggest whether this is the correct procedure or not.
Thanks,
Abhishek

[David Eedle]

Hi Abhishek

It's a bit hard to be of assistance because I don't know what you are trying to achieve, and what your set up is.

If you have added the ports correctly via Windows Firewall then they should be open.

I would suggest you start by disabling Windows Firewall service - which will mean all ports are open - and try that. If that works then maybe something is wrong with the way you added the ports to Windows Firewall. Make sure you configured the scope correctly for example - I don't know if you are trying to make a connection to the server from outside your network, or internally, for example.

If you are trying to access the server from the internet, then are you sure there is no other firewall in operation? For example many hosting providers have firewalls in place and you might need to ask them to open the ports for you.

I'm sorry, but without more detailed information about your particular circumstances it is difficult to comment.

My script on this blog post is simply a quick way to deal with the problem of Windows Firewall only adding one port at a time. The script is not doing anything you cannot do in Windows Firewall - other than offering the convenience of being able to open a group of ports with a single command.

Kind regards...David