Cannot access site hosted on IIS 7 from LAN with server firewall on

Question

I have an MVC site hosted on IIS 7. It works fine when accessed from the server itself.

However when I tried to access it from the same LAN as the server's the website wasn't reachable.

Next I disabled the windows firewall on the server and the site was accessible from within the LAN.

I would like to have the firewall enabled AND be able to access the site.

What do I have to enable in the firewall?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Try opening the port in Windows Firewall. Go to "Advanced Settings" in the Firewall setup and check the inbound rules and add the port if necessary.

Answer 2

I had the exact same issue, but the firewall in my system is managed by ESET smart security. In my case, I was not able to access the site from my machine with the firewall enabled. I wanted to add my answer so that it helps someone who is facing this issue with ESET.

1. Initially, I disabled the firewall and accessed the site.
2. While accessing the site, I checked the ports being used for the connections using "ESET SysInspector -> Network Connections". Found that my site's port was being used by the program "system".
3. Then I went to ESET's "Advanced setup -> Network -> Personal firewall -> Rules and zones". Clicked on "setup" under "zone and rule editor".
4. Click on "Toggle application tree view". Then under the column "Application/Rule", expanded "System" and found the rule "Deny communication for System" which was set to "Deny" for "Internet in". I set it to "Allow" for my site's local port and clicked "Ok" all the way out and was able to access my site with firewall enabled.

Answer 3

Ok, it was an old question, but I just found the inbound rule you need turn on. Hope the screenshot can help others in future.

Win7-firewall-inbound-BranchCache Content Retrieval (HTTP-In)