Can you bind the Windows "Server" service to an ip/interface?

Question

I'm running Windows Server 2008 R2. I would like to bind the Server service which listens on port 445 to a specific ip address or interface.

Is this possible?

Answer 1

Instead of messing with trying to change how the service binds (which I don't think you can do), perhaps just use the built-in Windows 2008 firewall instead.

Create a new incoming rule for that port with a narrow scope to allow that traffic only if it comes in on a specific IP address.

Answer 2

You will need to install RPCCfg. This can be downloaded from TechNet on the Microsoft web site

Run rpccfg –q

C:\Program Files\Resource Kit>rpccfg -q RPCCFG: Listening on all interfaces (default configuration)

RPCCFG: Using default port settings

This tells us that we are listening on all interfaces and using default ports. Now we get a list of all the adapters, so run rpccfg –l

C:\Program Files\Resource Kit>rpccfg -l IF[65540]: Ethernet: HP NC371i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter IF[65539]: Ethernet: HP NC371i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter #2 IF[1]: Ethernet: MS TCP Loopback interface

Now we need to modify what interfaces RPC listens to. So in this instance, the first interface is our internal, and the second interface (#2) is our external, so we want to disable RPC on the second interface. So we run rpccfg –a 1 65540 This makes RPC listen on the Loopback interface and the internal interface.

C:\Program Files\Resource Kit>rpccfg -a 1 65540 RPCCFG: Listening on the following interfaces IF[1]: Ethernet: MS TCP Loopback interface IF[65540]: Ethernet: HP NC371i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter

You can now verify the config of RPC:

C:\Program Files\Resource Kit>rpccfg -q RPCCFG: Listening on the following interfaces IF[1]: Ethernet: MS TCP Loopback interface IF[65540]: Ethernet: HP NC371i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter

RPCCFG: Using default port settings