How do I keep a program from accessing internet in Windows 8?

October 2, 2018 7:49 PM

I want to run a program but prevent it from accessing the internet. This is windows 8. I thought that's what the windows firewall did, but I can't figure out how to set it up. I have tried googling and that just made me feel dumber. How do I do this?
posted by If only I had a penguin... to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

These look like decent instructions:
https://www.simplehelp.net/2013/06/13/how-to-block-a-program-from-accessing-the-internet-in-windows-8/
posted by nalyd at 8:36 PM on October 2, 2018

Years ago I successfully used zonealarm to stop a trial program from talking to home. The process seemed very straightforward.
posted by unearthed at 2:15 AM on October 3, 2018

I'm mostly replying to watch this thread, but also to ask a sidequestion: Is there no equivalent to Little Snitch in Windows?

It does exactly what you're asking for on the Mac; you get the chance to review every outgoing and incoming network connection by application and connection destination. It's GREAT.
posted by uberchet at 6:29 AM on October 3, 2018

Uberchet; There's several ones like Zonealarm, COmodo etc. They're all pretty big though (they have their own Firewall embedded). A simple one that I use is Windows Firewall Control, https://www.binisoft.org/wfc.php.

It's basically a nice GUI for the inbuilt windows firewall, can prompt when software accesses internet, and create/deny rules as they do. Recently bought by Malwarebytes, for better or worse...
posted by Boobus Tuber at 4:51 AM on October 4, 2018 [1 favorite]