Windows Media Center brings together all your favorite entertainment for you to enjoy on your PC, on your TV or on the go.

Configuring Windows Firewall for Media Center Extender

Media Center Extenders use network ports to communicate over the network with PCs running Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. These ports can be blocked by firewalls running on your Media Center PC.

Windows Firewall is automatically configured to enable your Media Center Extender to connect to your Media Center PC during setup. However, if the settings are changed after setup has completed, connectivity between your Media Center Extender and your Media Center PC will be disrupted.

To manually configure or verify the configuration of Windows Firewall:

Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Security Center.
Under Manage security settings for, click Windows Firewall. Make sure that Windows Firewall is set to On and that the Don’t allow exceptions check box is not selected.

Click the Exceptions tab.

Under Programs and Services, the following items should be checked:

Media Center (c:\windows\ehome\ehshell.exe)
Media Center Extender Service (UDP 3776)
Remote Media Center Experience (TCP3390)
UPnP Framework

If any of these applications are not included in the list, see the following articles for information on how to add programs or ports to the Exceptions list in Windows Firewall.

Add a program to exceptions list

Add a port to exceptions list