Ping to Windows 10 not working if "file and printer sharing" is turned off?

I have one Windows 10 computer on a local network.

When I try to ping the Windows 10 machine from some other computer, it fails (Request timed out). From the Windows 10 machine, I can ping other devices with no problems.

I found out that if I go in Control Panel to the "Advanced sharing settings" and I turn on "File and printer sharing," the ping to this machine works normally.

My question is, WHY?

Why doesn't the ping work if "File and printer sharing" is turned off (on the pinged machine)? How is that related to the ping reply? A machine should still reply to a ping even if it does not share file/printer resources, or did I miss something?

lucidBug

Posted 2016-10-22T23:09:19.140

Reputation: 555

Answers

Because the File and printer sharing settings include the ability to deny/allow ICMP traffic. You can actually see this by navigating to the following:

Click the Start button
Search for Windows Firewall
Select Advanced Settings on the left
In the left pane select Inbound Rules
In the right pane look for the rules titled File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request - ICMPv4-In)

(Source)

You can see an example from my laptop (with File and printer sharing turned on) directly below:

Taking it a step further, if you want to leave File and printer sharing off but still allow "pings," you can enable the appropriate rules shown within the red box in the picture.

Run5k

Posted 2016-10-22T23:09:19.140

Reputation: 13 092

tnx! so basically, in windows, ICMPv4-In is directly connected with "file and printer sharing"? I cannot allow ICMPv4-In without "file and printer sharing" ? – lucidBug – 2016-10-22T23:36:20.950

*without turning ON "file and printer sharing" – lucidBug – 2016-10-22T23:38:38.277

1Settings that control ICMP traffic are included within the File and printer sharing functionality, but as I mentioned at the end of my answer, you should be able to individually enable the appropriate rules within Windows Firewall to allow ICMP traffic. – Run5k – 2016-10-22T23:40:19.157

But if I enable the rule (the one in the red box), then this is same like I put ON "file and printer sharing"? or not? – lucidBug – 2016-10-22T23:44:44.607

a ok, if I keep the others off (SMB, Spooler, LLMNR) then nothing is shared. Right? – lucidBug – 2016-10-22T23:47:24.317

If you only want to enable "ping" traffic, focus your efforts on the rules within the red box. You can allow it for just Private (as I did) or also allow Public, depending upon your personal preference and security posture. – Run5k – 2016-10-22T23:55:21.403

one more thing. In linux the machine can be automatically, pinged. Why in Windows, the echo reply, is tied with "file and sharing"? Is there a reason why they did it in this way? Cause lof of people have the sharing thing turned off... and maybe not everyone knows that this thing is tied with echo reply. – lucidBug – 2016-10-22T23:59:50.833

This was done to simplify things for the average end-user. The File and printer sharing functionality makes several changes when it is toggled on/off. Realistically, the average Windows end-user will never get into the firewall to specifically enable/disable rules, and they probably won't have a compelling need to "ping" devices on their network, either. – Run5k – 2016-10-23T00:04:10.070

understand! tnx! – lucidBug – 2016-10-23T00:09:57.943

I had issues ping-ing a Windows 10 VM, even if I turned on the file and printer sharing rule.

So I added the following:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ping" protocol=ICMPV4 dir=in action=allow

Warning: this command will apply the rule to the Private, Public, and Domain network profiles.

user7365010

Posted 2016-10-22T23:09:19.140

Reputation: 85

Windows uses firewall presets, depending on your network type: Public, Private or Domain. Default is Public. In the Public preset, the firewall is set "tighter"; It blocks more, e.g. ping requests. If you turn on File and printer sharing, Windows will change your network type (= firewall preset) to Private. The firewall will be more open, allowing ping requests.

YayWay

Posted 2016-10-22T23:09:19.140

Reputation: 1