Windows firewall ignoring my port inbound rules?

iPlayZombies · October 10, 2019

After a lot of hours trying to figure out why my Rainbow Six Siege suddenly stopped working, and also why my Modern Warfare beta wouldn't launch, I figured out that certain ports were not open. Specifically in my case UDP 3074 for call of duty.
They are open on my router however. So I managed to determine that it was the windows firewall. I can add an "inbound rule" that will "allow the connection" of port "UDP - 3074". And that works, sometimes.

Therein lies my issue. I can get these games to work by deleting the rules. Restarting my PC. Re-adding the rules. Restarting my PC, and then it MIGHT work. Usually 50% of the time. If it doesn't, I repeat the process until it works.

So thats my question. Clearly it is the windows firewall that is blocking my games accessing the online services needed to function. But I have added the rules to allow them to be open, why doe sit not remain open? Why do I have to mess around and delete and re-add them to try and get it to allow the connection?

Thanks,

Kev.

homeap5 · October 10, 2019

Because you should focus on outbound rules first. Before any packet is sent by any server, you must request that packet by sending your packet - then and only then server answers. Is possible that you get some packets only because you start your game and gameserver sends you some data usinf opened inbound ports, but then your game is unable to respond and you loose that communication.

Anyway, you may try disable windows firewall and install comodo free firewall, set it to custom mode with some paranoid settings and check how it really works.

Strange for me is that your method works, even sometimes.

iPlayZombies · October 15, 2019

On 10/10/2019 at 2:22 AM, homeap5 said:

Because you should focus on outbound rules first. Before any packet is sent by any server, you must request that packet by sending your packet - then and only then server answers. Is possible that you get some packets only because you start your game and gameserver sends you some data usinf opened inbound ports, but then your game is unable to respond and you loose that communication.

Anyway, you may try disable windows firewall and install comodo free firewall, set it to custom mode with some paranoid settings and check how it really works.

Strange for me is that your method works, even sometimes.

Sorry for the delayed response, and thank you for your reply.
I have also added them to my outbound rules, and the same issues still happen.

Also, side question since you mentioned it, could it be Avast/Malwarebytes? Are there better alternatives. Is comodo good? Thanks

homeap5 · October 15, 2019

1 minute ago, iPlayZombies said:

Sorry for the delayed response, and thank you for your reply.
I have also added them to my outbound rules, and the same issues still happen.

Also, side question since you mentioned it, could it be Avast/Malwarebytes? Are there better alternatives. Is comodo good? Thanks

Comodo is not an alternative. Comodo is firewall, Avast is antivirus.

Of course firewall can detect some bad stuff too (most of viruses trying to connect to internet), but it's not for that type of protection. BUT... of course modern firewalls like Comodo has many options that are designed for safety against viruses (even AV module).

Comodo just show you all connections alerts (Windows Firewall do not alert you about outgoing connections for example) so you can figure out what is wrong.