Why Is My Firewall Blocking Everything ✦ < Premium >

You’d think a firewall is a simple thing: it says “yes� or “no.� But mine had started screaming “no� at everything—my browser, my email, even the little widget that checks for system updates. Every few seconds, a fresh alert popped up in the corner of my screen: “Firewall blocked connection to 192.168.1.1.� Then: “Firewall blocked svchost.exe.� Then: “Firewall blocked Windows Explorer.� Yes. It had blocked Explorer. I couldn’t see my own files anymore. The desktop was a static photograph.

I went downstairs. Knocked. No answer. The door was unlocked. why is my firewall blocking everything

I dug into the Windows Filtering Platform callouts—deep kernel stuff. That’s when I found it: a tiny, unsigned driver named bxdiag.sys . No manufacturer. No version. Creation date: tomorrow. Not last week. Not today. Tomorrow. You’d think a firewall is a simple thing:

The file doesn’t exist anymore. But the firewall still remembers its name. I couldn’t see my own files anymore