Firewall Interfering/Blocking Homegroup Functionality

If the firewall is activated, the Homegroup function on my two Windows 7 and one Windows 10 PCs does not work correctly. The computers cannot "see" each other. When you open the File Explorer, one or both of the two other PCs are not shown/listed in the Homegroup section. Most times, they are not listing in the Network section either. Sometimes the PC which I am using will not even show up as a listing in the Networking section of File Explorer!

Things I have done:

I have switched Network adapter to Home/Office.

I have turned off the "block port scans in the network" function.

I have turned Stealth Mode off. As a side note, for about the first four times I turned Stealth Mode off, every time I rebooted and came back in to check, this setting it had turned itself back on. After I also turn off the "block port scans in the network" function, stealth mode now seems to stay off during a reboot.

I am using Bitdefender Build 22.0.18.224 for the Total 2018 product.

All three PCs have the latest updates from Microsoft for their Windows install. All three are 64 bit.

After searching the archives here and on the internet, I found references to a similar problem in Bitdefender going back many years!

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Comments

Sergiu C.

Hi,

Can you please send us an email at bitsy@bitdefender.com regarding this issue ? Please also create and attach to your email a support tool log generated with the option to reproduce the issue enabled: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/8919/

Thank you!

Raptor6L

Hi bitbybit

How did you get on with this?

I'm facing the same issues. Cannot see server on network, cannot remote in, can't even ping. Turn the firewall off and bingo, full functionality returns.

Cheers

Chris

M. Stewart

Bitdefender 2018 does (apparently by default) set your adapter to 'hidden'. 'Stealth mode' they call it. I am sure that somewhere they have documented this. To correct this you need to open bitdefender, then 'view features' then open up the 'gear' (settings) symbol on the firewall pane, then at the top of the page select 'network adapters' , then select' home/office' in the box with the drop-down arrow across from either 'ethernet' or 'local adapter' (seems to be a win 10 or win 7 thing, but I CANNOT find any documentation...). Then select 'SETTINGS' from the top of page selections, and on that page select 'Edit Stealth Settings' under Stealth Mode. Now comes the scary part... the top of the page that pops up says "Make your device invisible both inside and outside your network" And turn it Off. ( Hopefully your internal network uses one of the private ranges....)

Then you need to go into your firewall settings again, (seems easier than trying to back out of where you are) select 'Rules' from the top of the page. From the page that pops up , at the top next to 'apply this rule to all applications' switch it to 'yes'. Then next to 'Network Type' select 'Home/Office' from the drop-down. 'any' 'any', and select 'Advanced from the top of the page' From the new page select the 'Custom Remote Address', turn it 'On' and give it the address of one of the other IPs of your internal network. Now repeat the add rule bit for each and every IP on your private network. And repeat the process from each device using bitdefender.

I'd like to ask Bitdefender Support "WHY?" But all I get is a little whirling circle-ish thingy. I cannot find any advice anywhere how to add an entire subnet, which would make the pain a bit easier...

All of the above is documented at " https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2397/ " by the way, so it is not like Bitdefender totally screwed the pooch... But they hid it so well that they must feel somewhat embarrassed about it.

Sergiu C.

Hi /index.php?/profile/213469-m-stewart/&do=hovercard" data-mentionid="213469" href="<___base_url___>/index.php?/profile/213469-m-stewart/" rel="">@M. Stewart ,

You can for example use 192.168.0.0/24 to cover the IP range from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.0.255

M. Stewart

" You can for example use 192.168.0.0/24 to cover the IP range from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.0.255 "

Thank you for that bit of information. Maybe it should be in the documentation.