[Windows Firewall] "Your Internet access is blocked" :-/

Winfried · Mar 19, 2026

Hello,

I was trying to learn about Win11's firewall.

I don't know what I did, but now, I have to turn it off so I can access the Internet :-/

Your Internet access is blocked Firewall or antivirus software may have blocked the connection.
Try:
Checking the connection
Checking firewall and antivirus configurations
Running Windows Network Diagnostics
ERR_NETWORK_ACCESS_DENIED

This site can’t be reached
The webpage at https://www.google.com/ might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
ERR_QUIC_PROTOCOL_ERROR

FWIW, I also ran "Minimal.Firewall" afterwards, but I closed it and I don't know if it means anything.

Any idea how to fix my blunder?

Thanks for any help.

--
Edit: Re-enabling the Public profile and changing that setting seems to work. I'm still curious to understand what I did wrong.

garlin · Mar 19, 2026

Run this command as Admin:

Code:

netsh advfirewall reset

Resetting the firewall may actually block some apps, which added themselves to your allow rules list. You'll have to re-approve those apps again.

Winfried · Mar 19, 2026

Thanks. I ran the command and it said OK.

But for the Public profile, and unlike the Private profile, do I really want to allow even outgoing connections that don't match a rule, just as a fix for the "Your Internet access is blocked/This site can’t be reached"?

I'm flying blind :-/

maur0 · Mar 19, 2026

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall\DomainProfile]
"EnableFirewall"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall\PrivateProfile]
"EnableFirewall"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall\PublicProfile]
"EnableFirewall"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsFirewall\StandardProfile]
"EnableFirewall"=dword:00000001

Winfried · Mar 19, 2026

Now that things are running again, not sure I'll edit the Registry after I broke things by not knowing what I was doing :-/

Ghot · Mar 19, 2026

Winfried said:
Now that things are running again, not sure I'll edit the Registry after I broke things by not knowing what I was doing :-/

When you need to make a registry edit and you're not sure you'll do it correctly, just export that registry key.
Then do your edit, and if it doesn't work, just double click the exported registry key to merge it back into the registry.
It will take a minute or two, but you can even export the entire registry.

Winfried · Mar 19, 2026

Now that my (still unknown) error is fixed by running "netsh advfirewall reset", what would editing the Registry do in addition?

Ghot · Mar 19, 2026

Winfried said:
Now that my (still unknown) error is fixed by running "netsh advfirewall reset", what would editing the Registry do in addition?

I'm not saying you "need" to edit the registry. If you have the problem fixed, you're good to go.
I just posted that for future reference.

A lot of the tutorials, fixes and tweaks, use registry patches.
Exporting the registry gives you a backup of the registry, if things go wrong.

retiredat44 · Mar 19, 2026

Winfried said:
Hello,

I was trying to learn about Win11's firewall.

I don't know what I did, but now, I have to turn it off so I can access the Internet :-/

FWIW, I also ran "Minimal.Firewall" afterwards, but I closed it and I don't know if it means anything.

Any idea how to fix my blunder?

Thanks for any help.

--
Edit: Re-enabling the Public profile and changing that setting seems to work. I'm still curious to understand what I did wrong.

may have complicated the win defender firewall with the app from github. But cleaning it out, disabling it, and what advice that was given might return it to standard firewall setting with Win11. don't know, as I never used that app. I did give up on Norton a couple years ago after all the firewall issues they caused.

garlin · Mar 19, 2026

The problem with Windows Firewall rules is they're internally saved as multiple, lengthy reg keys.

You'll never figure out what each key does, and you're not supposed change individual keys by hand. That's why the Firewall UI (or a 3rd-party firewall rules app) exists to do in safe manner.

KevTech · Mar 19, 2026

If you need to in the future you can also reset the firewall within Windows in the Firewall and network protection section.

Winfried · Mar 20, 2026

Thanks everyone for the help.

Unless I overlooked it, I found no book on Amazon just on WFW, so I guess it's simple enough once you're familiar with it.

Incidently, is there a reliable open-source alternative to WFW, or is it really good enough?

And what's the point of rules if "outbound connections that do not match a rule are allowed" for the Private/Public profiles anyway?

The whole reason I got interested in WFW is that I'm migrating from ADSL to fiber, and my ISP's router only allows the firewall for IPv6 to be on/off with no fine-grain tuning while I need to have one host accessible from the Net, so I'll have to leave that feature off and thus must protect all hosts with a software firewall on each.

I notice inbound connections to those critical ports are only allowed from either the Domain or Private profiles, which is good:

[Windows Firewall] "Your Internet access is blocked" :-/

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