ICMP is the Internet Control Message Protocol that is sent when users use the ping utility. The ping utility is useful to check if the devices connected to the network are active. Therefore, pinging can be useful for checking network connections.
However, firewalls block ICMP pings for users by default. Consequently, users cannot ping when a firewall is activated. Therefore, it is quite obvious what users need to do to fix ICMP pings!
Contents index
- How to fix blocked pings in Windows 10
- Disable Windows Defender Firewall
- Enable Ping through Firewall
- Disable third-party antivirus software
How to fix blocked pings in Windows 10
1. Disable Windows Defender Firewall
Most users, of course, will disable Windows Defender Firewall before pinging the Command Prompt. Disabling WDF is perhaps the easiest way to fix pinging. Users can turn off the WDF as follows.
- To open Cortana, press the Windows key + the Q key.
- Enter firewall to search for the WDF, and then select to open the Windows Defender Firewall Control Panel applet.
- Click Turn Windows Defender Firewall on or off on the left to open the snapshot settings directly below
.
- Then click the Turn off Windows Defender Firewall radio buttons .
- Select the OK option .
- Users can select the Turn on Windows Defender Firewall settings after pinging option .
2. Enable Ping through Firewall
However, users can also ping without shutting down the WDF. Users can do this by configuring a WDF ping request exception. Follow the guidelines below to set a ping request exception.
- Right-click the Start button to open the Win + X menu.
- Select Command Prompt (Admin) to open the Prompt window.
- First, enter netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name = »ICMP Allow incoming V4 echo request» protocol = icmpv4: 8, any dir = in action = allow and press the Return key to set an ICMPv4 exception.
- Then enter netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name = »ICMP Allow incoming V6 echo request» protocol = icmpv6: 8, any dir = in action = in action = allow in the Command Prompt window, as shown directly below, and press the Enter key.
- Users can then enter their pings at the Command Prompt.
3. Disable third-party antivirus software
However, if the ICMP ping still doesn’t work, there must be a third-party firewall blocking it. Some users will also need to disable third-party antivirus software, which includes their own firewalls. To do this, right-click the icon in the system tray of the antivirus utility to open its context menu. Next, select an option from the context menu that disables your antivirus software, which can be a shutdown, disable, stop, or shutdown option. Alternatively, users can stop antivirus software that starts with Windows as follows.
- Open the Win + X menu by right-clicking the Start button.
- Click on Task Manager to open that utility.
- Select the Startup tab in Task Manager.
- Select the antivirus utility on the Startup tab and press the Disable button .
- Then restart Windows.
This is how users can fix blocked pings. Then users can check their connections with pings
