How to quickly Enable/Disable Internet Traffic so that it ONLY goes to ONE program?

Question

What Firewall program (preferably free) can I use to quickly enable/disable internet traffic so that it only goes to one program?

For example, sometimes I need only one program (Program X) to be using the internet unhindered, so I would need to block all incoming/outgoing traffic except for that one program, that way Program X gets 100% use of the traffic.

I've tried the free version of "Windows 7 Firewall Control" by SphinxSoftware and it allows you to individually block traffic to each program, but I don't see anyway to quickly block all traffic except to one program, nor does it allow you to quickly unblock the traffic to all other programs once your done.

Any ideas?

Solution

Open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. Click "Export Policy" and save your current settings somewhere. Then delete every rule.

Make two inbound and outbound rules that follow this sequence:

• Click "New Rule..."
• Select "Custom" as the rule type
• The rule applies to all programs
• Protocol type: Any
• Applies to all IP addresses
• Block the connection
• Applies everywhere
• Call it "Block Everything" or something
• Click "Finish"

Everything should now be blocked. Then, just create new rules (inbound and outbound) that allow your specific program through. (Hopefully said program doesn't need DNS, because that's something separate - still looking, but if it connects directly to certain IP addresses, then you're fine.)

Also export this policy to a file. When you want to switch, just import the other file - it will automatically erase the current policy.

Comments

[ProgrammerGirl]

Thanks, but that's not working. I was able to disable ALL incoming/outgoing connection following your steps (which worked), but then creating a new rule to grant access to just that program did not work as it was still blocked. You can try it yourself, and create the rule for your Browser, and the browser still won't work. Any ideas? Thanks.

[Ry-]

@Programmer: Nope, like I said, still working on it :)