Serious issues between ESET SS firewall and Blizzard Games

[Senortubbs 1]

Can't get the ESET firewall to play nice with Blizzard games, specifically World of Warcraft and Hearthstone.

 

I've used ESET for years, played these games with it previously. But this last month, it refuses to let them connect. The only way I've been able to run either is to disable the firewall the entire time I play, and that's not a good solution. That also tells me though, that ESET is definitely the problem.

 

Every other thread I've seen on this topic ends with "delete all the existing rules and put it into interactive mode"
but that has not worked for me. Interactive mode is how I normally leave the firewall, and it works for everything else, but I am never getting the pop-up for these. I've even tried a trick I've learnt with some other programs, which is to disable for 10 minutes, run the application and then wait for ESET to 'discover' it when it turns back on. But in these cases it just shuts down all communication at that point. Which in WoW kicks me off, and in Hearthstone crashes the application completely.

 

I've been trying to manually configure both applications. First allowing all, then specifically allowing the ports indicated on https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/firewall-proxy-router-and-port-configurationbut I'm not getting anywhere with that either. It's possible I'm setting it up wrong, because I have no idea what I'm doing there.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts? I feel like I've exhausted all the normal solutions here. Surely someone else has managed to get either of these to run through ESET.

[Marcos 5,071]

Does allowing the appropriate communication via the firewall troubleshooting wizard work? What about removing all block rules and switching to learning mode while playing the game so that the necessary rules are created automatically?

[Senortubbs 1]

I'm actually not familiar with the firewall troubleshooting wizard, how do I find/use that?

 

I did try deactivating all the blocking rules (by unchecking them in the rule management view), still couldn't load them up.

 

My suspicion is it has something to do with port 3724, since Hearthstone and WoW have that in common. Diablo III, which I launch through the same Blizzard launcher etc does not use that port, and operates fine.

[iamawb 0]

I want to add to this thread and post that after 9.0.375.0 came out, I have had nothing but problems. Windows Store Apps will not update "all" of them. My Second Life "Game" keeps saying it found a Degrade in Performance and locks up. My printer, my WD Cloud HDD, and other stuff are getting BLOCKED! I have hit unblock but they just block it again. I have uninstalled, used the eset uninstaller, did a clean install of Windows 10 and nothing wants to work properly unless I just uninstall eset and leave it off the computer. This needs to get fixed asap!

[Marcos 5,071]

Does temporarily disabling firewall make a difference? If so, try switching the firewall to learning mode until all necessary rules are created automatically.

[Senortubbs 1]

Every other thread I've seen on this topic ends with "delete all the existing rules and put it into interactive mode"

but that has not worked for me. Interactive mode is how I normally leave the firewall, and it works for everything else, but I am never getting the pop-up for these. I've even tried a trick I've learnt with some other programs, which is to disable for 10 minutes, run the application and then wait for ESET to 'discover' it when it turns back on. But in these cases it just shuts down all communication at that point. Which in WoW kicks me off, and in Hearthstone crashes the application completely.

 

 

It simply refuses to learn the rules for these applications. 

[iamawb 0]

Yes disabled everything and still have nothing but issues. I have tried the Learning Mode but it keeps adding the "same ones" over and over again and makes no difference.

[Gonzalo Alvarez 66]

Hi @Senortubbs,

 

Something is not "right" on your case or there is a missing part (one you are not aware of).

 

I want to explain something for you.

The normal mode of the ESET Firewall is "Automatic mode", when you use the any other mode ("interactive" or "learning")

the config has now be "Automatic mode with exceptions" (to apply the rules created).

 

As you try several things perhaps your rules or configuration is now a mess. If want, export your current config (hxxp://support.eset.com/kb3133/) and save it.

Download a new ESET installer of your product, uninstall the active one, reboot, install, activate, let him update.

 

Now, without other program running, set the firewall in "learning mode", run "WoW". and wait.

 

ESET will create the rules automatically, when is done and you are able to enter set the ESET firewall into

the "automatic mode" (latests version of ESET automatically loads new rules created).

 

If not work, well is time to contact your local ESET Support as you are a customer I guess.

 

 

@iamawb,

Your case can be very different from this one, I suggest you create you own thread or contact ESET Support

which is the right thing to do when you have a problem and should be the first one you call (my opinion so far).
Your case of Windows Store have a thread here: https://forum.eset.com/topic/7804-windows-10-store/

Edited March 21, 2016 by Gonzalo Alvarez

[dwomack 160]

If the issue is with connecting to Warcraft/Hearthstone would creating a rule to allow the ports (see ESET KB) used by them be recommended? Has that been attempted?

 

ie. TCP ports 1119, 3724, 4000, and 6112 | UDP port 3724

 

If that doesn't seem to fix the issue, something else might be going on and I'd venture opening a support ticket with ESET Customer Care might be the recommended solution.

[Senortubbs 1]

Thanks guys. Ultimately I have found a solution. I deleted, then reinstalled both games. ESET still didn't 'learn' a rule, but at least when I made one for it, it actually stuck. Hearthstone was just a particular challenge, because for whatever reason, where most games simply throw up a "can't find connection" error, it would just straight up crash.

 

So, to summarise, for anyone else who has this problem in future.

 

If you have a program that ESET - 

1. Refuses to recognise while in "learning" or "interactive" mode
2. Doesn't seem to apply manually created rules to
3. But does let through if you turn off the firewall entirely

Then try reinstalling the program if at all possible, because the issue might be that it isn't correctly identifying the path to the program or some such.