W10 Firewall pain

[mightyoakbob]

Hi Simon,

First off, that fix you did in the summer for multiple Minimwatch icons has never wobbled since, a complete fix - thanks.

Over the last few days I've set up a Synology NAS with MinimServer for a none tech friend. I set it up on my network with both my laptop and the NAS using DHCP but my network is 192.168.1.x. my friend's is 192.168.0.x
It was working fine at my house. Connected laptop and NAS to his network and you guessed it - grey minimwatch.

I tried evrything I could think of including uninstalling and re-installing minimserver. Two hours later still grey, pulling hair out now.
After some googling I saw the word "firewall" and switched of the W10 laptop firewall. Minimwatch went green. By then I'd run out of time and had to drive home, they are 30 miles away.

Back home now and reading your instructions on this, I had not checked if my laptop thought his network was home or public never thought to look but his laptop behaved the same as mine so I'm not convinced that's the problem.

Then your notes say this..
"If this enables MinimWatch to discover MinimServer, you need to change your firewall settings to allow inbound connections to minimserver."

Call me thick or tell me I don't understand English but that doesn't compute for me. Surely, the only place *inbound* connections to Minimserver can be set is wherever Minimserver is running ie. on the NAS. But we know the problem lies on the W10 laptop so to me it should be either..
outbound connections to MinimServer or inbound connections from MiminServer.

I'm not understanding this am I?

Advice appreciated.

Cheers,

Bob.

[simoncn]

Thanks for pointing out these typos on the Troubleshooting page, now fixed.

It could be the firewall settings or it could be the public/private network setting. If the setting is public, outbound connections would work OK but inbound connections would be blocked.

[mightyoakbob]

(04-12-2022 22:59)simoncn Wrote:  Thanks for pointing out these typos on the Troubleshooting page, now fixed.

That's a surprise I was pretty sure it was me but you're welcome.

(04-12-2022 22:59)simoncn Wrote:  It could be the firewall settings or it could be the public/private network setting. If the setting is public, outbound connections would work OK but inbound connections would be blocked.

Now I know, checking the public/private situation isn't a problem except for the distance. But what about if it isn't that? Do you have any more guidance on what needs to be opened and how to do it?

Is this related to what I see when I get a Java update on the W10 PC where a window opens asking for it to be allowed on public/private networks? If so, I wonder if it's possible to trigger that window in some way?

Cheers,

Bob.

[simoncn]

The problem is very likely to be either the public/private setting or incorrect firewall rules for inbound connections.

If you get the firewall pop-up, this provides a simple way to set the firewall rules correctly. I am not sure how to make this pop-up appear if it doesn't appear automatically.

For detailed instructions on how to change the firewall settings if you don't get the pop-up, see this post. The instructions in the post assume that the network type is set to private.

[mightyoakbob]

(06-12-2022 13:19)simoncn Wrote:  The problem is very likely to be either the public/private setting or incorrect firewall rules for inbound connections.

If you get the firewall pop-up, this provides a simple way to set the firewall rules correctly. I am not sure how to make this pop-up appear if it doesn't appear automatically.

For detailed instructions on how to change the firewall settings if you don't get the pop-up, see this post. The instructions in the post assume that the network type is set to private.

I've had a look at these settings on my computer. I notice that it doesn't care what ip addresses are in use so we shouldn't need different setting for two differnet but "home" networks.

Interesting.

Thank you Simon.

Bob.