Why Is My Firewall | Blocking Everything [verified]

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.

The third line: “SHE WILL COME BACK IF YOU DO.”

I opened the advanced security console. Inbound rules: empty. Outbound rules: empty. Connection security rules: empty. That was odd. Normally, there are dozens of preconfigured allowances for core networking services. Someone—or something—had wiped the slate clean. why is my firewall blocking everything

Then I checked the audit log. Timestamps from 3:17 AM. Every two seconds, an entry: “Filtering platform policy change.” And then, at 3:18 AM: “Windows Filtering Platform base filtering engine stopped.” Restarted at 3:19 AM with a new configuration. The configuration had exactly one rule:

I went downstairs. Knocked. No answer. The door was unlocked. I dug into the Windows Filtering Platform callouts—deep

I rebooted into safe mode, disabled the firewall, and the internet roared back to life. So the problem wasn’t the network. It was the firewall itself. But why? I hadn’t changed any rules. I hadn’t installed new security software. It was the same basic Windows Defender Firewall I’d ignored for three years.

The second line: “DO NOT DISABLE ME.” No version

I never found out who “she” was. I wiped the drive, reinstalled Windows, and moved to a new city within a week. The firewall works fine now. But sometimes, late at night, I see a single blocked connection attempt in the log. Destination IP: the old apartment. Port: 443. Protocol: HTTPS. Process: bxdiag.sys .