Question Microsoft account login and 0x800704cf

[miyagi666]

I keep the windows 10 firewall set to "block" all out going connections. Then I manually add rules for specific apps to allow connections. Plus, windows 10 automatically creates its own outbound rules that I leave as is.

This works fine for everything, except for apps that want to log in to my microsoft account (windows store, xbox app, forza games). I can easily fix this by setting the firewall to "allow" all outbound connections.

But I should not have to do this? The store and forza games created their own outbound rules in the firewall and those should override the "block" all connections setting. At least thats how it works for every other app I have.

I've already "reset" the windows store, so now I'm thinking I may need to either reset the firewall, or unblock a windows app/service that the store login relies on, but are being blocked.

Any ideas?

 

[Scarpozzi]

I keep the windows 10 firewall set to "block" all out going connections. Then I manually add rules for specific apps to allow connections. Plus, windows 10 automatically creates its own outbound rules that I leave as is.

This works fine for everything, except for apps that want to log in to my microsoft account (windows store, xbox app, forza games). I can easily fix this by setting the firewall to "allow" all outbound connections.

But I should not have to do this? The store and forza games created their own outbound rules in the firewall and those should override the "block" all connections setting. At least thats how it works for every other app I have.

I've already "reset" the windows store, so now I'm thinking I may need to either reset the firewall, or unblock a windows app/service that the store login relies on, but are being blocked.

Any ideas?

Basic firewall stuff...
Rules are either tcp, udp, or both.

If you can figure out what kind of traffic you're dealing with (app requirements), you can tweak the rules inbound/out.

Netstat can give you a picture of what's listening, but you really need something like Wireshark to record activity and play it back. That can help you see all activity in a short, given time period and figure out what the apps are actually doing. One challenge is that a lot of apps use passive ports outbound, so they will actually hit a large range of ports instead on a particular one or two. If you can't lock down a single port or port range, it can cause issues when doing that kind of firewalling. Outbound firewalls are the toughest...

 

[miyagi666]

Thought this might be something others had already come across and sorted out. But I can try the methods you suggested. Thanks for the info.