How to configure a firewall for domains and trusts

This article describes how to configure a firewall for domains and trusts.

Note that not all of the port listed in the tables below are required in all scenarios. For example, if the firewall separates members and DCs, you don't need to open the FRS and/or DFSR ports. Also if you know no clients use LDAP with SSL/TLS, you don't need to open ports 636 and 3269.

To establish a domain trust or a security channel across a firewall, the following ports must be opened. Be aware that there may be hosts functioning with both client and server roles on both sides of the firewall. Therefore, ports rules may have to be mirrored. 

Windows NT

In this environment, one side of the trust is a Windows NT 4.0 trust, or the trust was created by using the NetBIOS names.

Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server

For a mixed-mode domain that uses either Windows NT domain controllers or legacy clients, trust relationships between Windows Server 2003-based domain controllers and Windows 2000 Server-based domain controllers may necessitate that all the ports for Windows NT that are listed in the previous table be opened in addition to the following ports.

Note The two domain controllers are both in the same forest, or the two domain controllers are both in a separate forest. Also, the trusts in the forest are Windows Server 2003 trusts or later version trusts.(*) To define RPC server ports that are used by the LSA RPC services, see KB article 224196 or the "Domain controllers and Active Directory" section in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

Windows Server 2008/Windows Server 2008 R2

In a mixed-mode domain that consists of Windows Server 2003 domain controllers, Windows 2000 Server-based domain controllers, or legacy clients, the default dynamic port range is 1025 through 5000. Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, in compliance with Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) recommendations, has increased the dynamic client port range for outgoing connections. The new default start port is 49152, and the default end port is 65535. Therefore, you must increase the RPC port range in your firewalls. For more information about the change in the dynamic port range in Windows Server 2008, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about this change, visit the Ask the Directory Services Team blog and read the following article:

Dynamic Client Ports in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista (http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2007/08/24/dynamic-client-ports-in-windows-server-2008-and-windows-vista-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-iana.aspx)

(*) To define RPC server ports that are used by the LSA RPC services, see KB article 224196 or the "Domain controllers and Active Directory" section in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

832017  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832017/ ) Service overview and network port requirements for the Windows Server system

Note: External trust 123/UDP is only needed if you have manually configured the Windows Time Service to Sync with a server across the external trust.

Active Directory

In Windows 2000 and XP, for the Active Directory Group Policy client to function correctly through a firewall, the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) protocol must be allowed through the firewall from the clients to the domain controllers. ICMP is used to determine whether the link is a slow link or a fast link.

In Windows Server 2008 and newer versions, the Network Location Awareness Service provides the bandwidth estimate based on traffic with other stations on the network. There is no traffic generated for the estimate.

The Windows Redirector also uses ICMP to verify that a server IP is resolved by the DNS service before a connection is made, and when a server is located using DFS. This applies to SYSVOL access by domain members.


If you want to minimize ICMP traffic, you can use the following sample firewall rule:
Unlike the TCP protocol layer and the UDP protocol layer, ICMP does not have a port number. This is because ICMP is directly hosted by the IP layer.

By default, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server DNS servers use ephemeral client-side ports when they query other DNS servers. However, this behavior may be modified with a specific registry setting that is described in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
For more information about Active Directory and firewall configuration, view the "Active Directory in Networks Segmented by Firewalls" Microsoft White Paper. To do this, visit the following Web site: Alternatively, you can establish a trust through the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) compulsory tunnel, and this will limit the number of ports that the firewall will need to open. For PPTP, the following ports must be enabled. In addition, you would have to enable IP PROTOCOL 47 (GRE).

Note When you add permissions to a resource on a trusting domain for users in a trusted domain, there are some differences between the Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 behavior. If the computer cannotdisplay a list of the remote domain's users:

• Windows NT 4.0 tries to resolve manually-typed names by contacting the PDC for the remote user's domain (UDP 138). If that communication fails, a Windows NT 4.0-based computer contacts its own PDC, and then asks for resolution of the name.
• Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 also try to contact the remote user's PDC for resolution over UDP 138, but they do not rely on using their own PDC. Make sure that all Windows 2000-based member servers and Windows Server 2003-based member servers that will be granting access to resources have UDP 138 connectivity to the remote PDC.