LAN-Tech Network Management

Sage Simply Accounting (Sage 50) Firewall Rules

When installing Simply accounting (in this case specifically Simply 2011) it requires opening firewall ports on the server to allow clients to use the Connection Manager to access data . Simply provides the following information in its help files:

However for most installations you only require 4 rules. You can use the server’s “Windows Firewall with Advanced Security” console to manually create a each rule one by one by generating new rules, browsing to the related service (.exe), and set to “allow”, or you can use a command line and netsh to create the rules. Again a little tedious entering each lengthy command one at a time.

The easiest method is to use a simple batch file with the four commands included in the script below. To make the batch file a little more informative I have added a few lines with description, the ability to opt out, and to be able to verify each command completed successfully. However using just the 4 netsh lines is all you require. The netsh commands included are tailored to only allow access from the local subnet for added security.

Simply copy the lines below to notepad and save as a batch file using a name like AddRules.bat  There are a few related notes:

• When saving use quotes around the name such as “AddRules.bat” in the Notepad ‘save as’ box, to ensure the .txt suffix will not be added to the name
• Each netsh commands is one single line. It is wraps in the blog article.
• When ready to run the batch file right click on it and choose “run as administrator (i.e. elevated privileges)

————————————————————————–

Echo Off
CLS
Echo  Batch file to configure Windows Firewall
Echo    for Sage Simply Accounting 2011 using
Echo      Windows Firewall with Advanced Security
Echo        [Access will be limited to local subnet]
Echo.
Echo click Ctrl+C to escape
Pause
Echo on

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”Simply Connection Manager” dir=in program=”C:\Program Files (x86)\Winsim\ConnectionManager\SimplyConnectionManager.exe” remoteip=localsubnet action=allow

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”Simply Tray Icon” dir=in program=”C:\Program Files (x86)\Winsim\ConnectionManager\Simply.SystemTrayIcon.exe” remoteip=localsubnet action=allow

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”Simply MySQL” dir=in program=”C:\Program Files (x86)\Winsim\ConnectionManager\MySqlBinary\5.0.38\mysql\mysqld-nt.exe” remoteip=localsubnet action=allow

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name=”Simply MySQL Admin” dir=in program=”C:\Program Files (x86)\Winsim\ConnectionManager\MySqlBinary\5.0.38\mysql\mysqladmin.exe” remoteip=localsubnet action=allow

Echo off
Echo  “ok” should have been displayed after each rule was applied
Echo     Refresh Windows Firewall with Advanced Security to view added rules
Pause
Exit

Update/Note:  I have noticed when cutting and pasting from this article the quotation marks become unrecognized characters on most systems.  Simply paste the abov text in notepad and use Find & Replace to replace all with standard keyboard quotation characters.