Windows Firewall prevents File and Printer sharing from working

file-sharingwindows firewall

I have a domain-joined machine (Win2K8R2) that I'm using at work, and I'd like to copy some files to my personal machine (Win7) that is currently not on the domain.

If Windows Firewall is enabled, I can't see my personal machine at all from my work machine. If I turn it off, I can ping it and navigate (via \\[machine]) to it and do what I need to do.

What I'd like to do is not need to disable Windows Firewall in this situation. On my personal machine I have my corporate network set to the "Work" profile, and "File and Printer sharing" is enabled for Private networks. It looks like it should work, but it's not.

What's the best way to troubleshoot this? I'd like to be able to pinpoint why this is not working. In case it helps, the corporate network uses IPSec.

Best Answer

I'm assuming you are using either Windows 7 or Vista, since you did not specify. When you open up the firewall settings, go to "allow a program." Then make sure the file and printing sharing is turned on.

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Windows – How to open file and printer shares to the internet

Just looking at my machine here (unfortunately XP so admittedly not the same), if I go into the exceptions tab in firewall settings, and edit the "File and Printer Sharing" entry, there is an option to "Change Scope". This presents you with the following three options:

Any Computer (including those on the Internet)
My network (subnet) only
Custom list

Can you confirm that the port ranges you mentioned are all present in the list when you edit the File and Printer Sharing entry, and that their scopes are all set to Any?

Update: If you go to "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" by clicking "Advanced Settings" from the left hand column on the Firewall homepage in Control Panel, you may be able to find the rule in question and edit its scope from there.

Update 2: Just seen your new screenshot, can you not change the rule from the other tabs? They both sound potentially useful!

Windows – Automate Windows 7’s file sharing and firewall settings

netsh should be all you need to tweak the firewall. Here's the verbose documentation on how to use it for the firewall specifically (since it can be used for a lot of things non-firewall related). Here's a few examples that might help get you started:

# Allow Remote Desktop
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Desktop" new enable=Yes
# Allow File and Printer Sharing
netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="File and Printer Sharing" new enable=Yes

Off the top of my head, I'm not sure how to affect the advanced sharing settings. I'm sure there's a way to do it though.

Best Answer

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Windows – Automate Windows 7’s file sharing and firewall settings

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