Troubleshooting windows firewall problems

Misconfiguring Windows Firewall can cause several different types of connectivity problems. On a computer running Windows 7 that is acting as the client, Windows Firewall might block outgoing communications for the application though blocking outgoing communications is not enabled by default.

On a computer running Windows 7 that is acting as the server for example, a computer that is sharing a folder , Windows Firewall misconfiguration might cause any of the following problems:. The symptoms of client- or server-side firewall misconfiguration are the same: application communication fails. To make troubleshooting more complex, network firewalls can cause the same symptoms.

Answer the following questions to help identify the source of the problem:. On a computer running Windows 7 that is acting as the server for example, a computer that is sharing a folder , Windows Firewall misconfiguration might cause any of the following problems: Windows Firewall blocks all incoming traffic for the application.

Click System and Security. Click Administrative Tools. Double-click Services. Verify that the services listed above are started. If one or more of the services are not started, right-click the service name in the list, and then click Start. As a last resort, you may want to restore Windows Firewall with Advanced Security defaults. When you restore default settings, you lose all settings, all firewall rules, and all IPsec connection security rules configured locally on the computer after Windows was installed.

Group Policy applied rules and settings are not disturbed. The loss of locally defined rules might cause some programs to stop working that depend on certain rules or settings. Also, if you are remotely managing this computer, the connection is lost when you restore defaults. Before resetting the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security defaults, make sure that you save the current firewall state.

This allows you to restore your settings if necessary. The steps to save the firewall state and reset Windows Firewall with Advanced Security to its default configuration are as follows:. To save the current firewall state. In the Save As property sheet, provide a name and path for the export file. Click Save. You can use the Import Policy option in the Actions pane to reapply your saved configuration. To restore Windows Firewall with Advanced Security to its default configuration.

Windows 7 and Windows Server R2 introduce the new netsh wfp context that enables you to capture diagnostic trace sessions of the behaviour of the Windows Filtering Platform which is the base engine that implements your firewall and connection security rules. Starting a capture session, reproducing the problem, and then stopping the capture results in a log that can help you or Microsoft Customer Support Services CSS troubleshoot connectivity problems on your computers.

To capture a Netsh WFP diagnostics session. Open a command prompt with Administrator permissions. To start the capture, run the command netsh wfp capture start. Reproduce the networking problem whose cause you are trying to diagnose. To complete the capture, run the command netsh wfp capture stop. The output file is stored in the current folder. To view the WFP diagnostic data.

In Explorer, double-click the. Because of the size of the. Several good ones are available for free download on the Web. Drag the wfpdiag. Open the file with your XML reader of choice and examine the contents. Note the main sections:. Similarly, you can use the netsh trace and netsh trace stop commands to capture a variety of diagnostic information customized to a selected scenario, such as wfp-ipsec. To capture a Netsh Trace diagnostics section.

Substitute a path a filename appropriate to your environment. The output of the command shows you that the trace is running, the file to which the data is written, and details of other possible parameters. Reproduce the problem whose cause you are trying to diagnose. The computer takes a few moments to compile the collected trace data into a.

Open Windows Explorer, browse to the folder you specified, and double-click the. A variety of text files,. One of the most common problems when using a network firewall is that it sometimes blocks network traffic that you want to allow.

The following sections discuss reasons that the firewall might be blocking traffic. To verify that the firewall is enabled for the current network location profile. The output shows the status of each of active network profiles Domain, Private, Public.

For example:. Name : Domain. Enabled : True. DefaultInboundAction : NotConfigured. DefaultOutboundAction : NotConfigured. AllowInboundRules : NotConfigured. AllowUserApps : NotConfigured. AllowUserPorts : NotConfigured. NotifyOnListen : True. LogMaxSizeKilobytes : LogAllowed : False. LogBlocked : False. LogIgnored : NotConfigured. Name : Private.

Name : Public. To add an inbound rule for a program by using the Windows Firewall Control Panel program. Under Allowed apps and features , check the list to see if an exception for your program already exists and just needs to be enabled. If you find one, click Change settings, then select the box next to it, and then click OK. If a rule does not already exist, click Allow another app. In the Add an app dialog box, either select your app from the list, or click the Browse button to type the path to the executable file.

If the program should only be accessed from certain network types, click Network types , and select either Private or Public network types.

Click Add to add the app to the list. Your new exception is displayed in the list in alphabetical order with a check mark in the box next to it. Click OK to save your new exception rule. Test your rule by running the network program that needs to be able to receive unsolicited network traffic. From the Start screen type wf. Click Inbound Rules and examine the list to see if an allow rule that meets your requirements already exists and just needs to be enabled.

Disabled rules have a grey icon next to them, while enabled rules are red, green or yellow. The Enabled column also indicates Yes or No. If you find a rule in the list, enable it by right-clicking the rule name, and then clicking Enable rule.

If a rule does not already exist, then create a new rule for your program by following these steps:. In the navigation pane, select Inbound Rules. In the Actions pane, click New Rule. On the Rule Type page, select Program , and then click Next.

On the Program page, select This program path , then click Browse , and navigate to the program you want to be able to receive inbound network traffic. Click Next to continue. On the Action page, select Allow the connection , and then click Next. On the Profile page, select the profiles to which this rule should apply, and then click Next.

On the Name page, type a name and a description for the rule. The rule is created and automatically enabled. To check if an active block rule exists, and disable it if found. Double-click Monitoring , and then click Firewall. The list of currently defined and active rules is displayed. If you find a rule that you suspect is interfering with required network traffic, note the value in the Direction column, Inbound or Outbound.

In the navigation pane, click Inbound Rules or Outbound Rules , depending on the value you found in step 3. Right-click the suspect rule in the list, and then click Disable rule. We recommend that you do not disable the rule until you verify that it indeed was the offending rule, and that disabling it did not adversely affect other network traffic.

This type of rule restricts services from establishing connections. Service restrictions are configured by default so that Windows Services can only communicate in specific ways i. This type of rule defines how and in which circumstances computers authenticate using IPsec. Connection security rules are used in establishing server and domain isolation, as well as in enforcing Network Access Protection NAP policy. This type of rule allows the connection of particular computers if the traffic is protected with IPsec, regardless of other inbound rules in place.

Specified computers are allowed to bypass inbound rules that block traffic: examples of this are vulnerability scanners, programs that scan other programs, computers, and networks for weaknesses.

This type of rule explicitly blocks a particular type of incoming or outgoing traffic. This type of rule explicitly allows a particular type of incoming or outgoing traffic. These rules define the action that takes place when a connection does not meet any of the parameters of a higher order rule. Out-of-the-box, the inbound default is to block connections, and the outbound default is to allow connections.

Within each rule category listed in the preceding table, rules are matched by the degree of their specificity. For example, rule 1 and rule 2 are both in the same category. If rule 1 has parameters A and B specified and rule 2 has parameters A, B, and C specified, then rule 2 will be evaluated first.

The first rule that is evaluated and matches all criteria is the rule applied to the network packet. When configuring the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security policy through Group Policy, the administrator can specify whether or not firewall or connection security rules created by local administrators are applied.

If you have created a local firewall or connection security rule and it is not appearing in the corresponding monitoring node, this may be the reason. To verify why local firewall and connection security rules do not appear in Monitoring.

Click the tab corresponding to the active profile. Click Customize in the Settings section. The Rule merging section will tell you if local rules are applied. To verify whether the rule or rules for your program require security. Select the rule you want to verify and then click Properties in the Actions pane.

The Windows Firewall also helps in keeping unauthorized users away from accessing resources or files of your computer by blocking them. Well, users are facing this issue exactly and worried about the security of their system. The problem you face with Windows Firewall can be categorized into various error codes such as 0x, Event ID: , Error and others.

So if you stumble upon any of these Windows Firewall errors, this article will give you comprehensive details about working methods to fix the firewall issue in Windows Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong. One of the best and easiest way to solve this problem is to download the official Windows Firewall Troubleshooter from the Microsoft website.

Download the Windows Firewall Troubleshooter from here. Now you need to double-click on the downloaded file after which you will see the below dialogue box.

To continue, click on the Next button. If everything is working properly, you can close the troubleshooter. Having information about the errors you can move further to fix Windows Firewall problems.

If the troubleshooter did not find any solution to the problem, then the issue can be entirely different which may be beyond the scope of troubleshooter. In such cases, you need to reset the Windows Firewall settings to default which may fix Windows Firewall problems in Windows However, after you reset the Windows Firewall, you need to reconfigure the apps permission through the Firewall. Type control panel in Windows Search bar then click on Control Panel from the search result.

Select System and Security option from the Control Panel window. Now click on Windows Defender Firewall. Next, from the left-hand window pane, click on the Restore Defaults link.