A minor annoyance, but a necessary security step I understand, but nowadays a lot of Windows updates are forcing my Windows Server installations to stop responding to ping requests from outside sources. Now naturally this is pretty logical because you don’t want outside sources sniffing out your servers, but unfortunately it does create a bit of a problem because most ‘heartbeat’ monitors rely on ping responses in order to determine whether said server is alive or not.
So should you wish to re-enable your server’s ping request response ability, in other words allow ICMP requests through the Windows firewall, one of the easiest ways to achieve it is via the command line:
Firstly, open a command prompt window via the start menu (either Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt or Start -> Run -> enter ‘cmd’). Then enter and run,
netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8 enable
The changes will go through automatically, meaning that you don’t need to restart your machine for them to be in effect.
Similarly, to disable response to ping requests, simply enter:
netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8 disable