Launchpad Sign-In Fix For Server Offline Error (Whs2011 Firewall)

Accidentally posted this to WHS V1 but it was meant to be here. WHS V1 forum had a firewall discussion, sorry.

WHS2011 launchpad sign-in solution that worked for me and solved the "your server appears to be offline..... bulls#!t.

I have had lots of problems with my WHS2011 launchpad on all my PC's using XP, Vista, Win7. Over the last 2 years I've done the uninstall reinstall of the connector software but on many occasions this didn't work & I have just had to do a new server install to fix the problems.

Shares and web access were never a problem it was always the launchpad that wouldn't sign in and so the very feature I wanted, ie, the automatic complete PC imaging/backup, would not run. So the server would become a useless box doing no more than any PC could, just sharing files.

I found when I turned off the WHS2011 firewall (on the server), the launchpad on the PC's would sign in just fine. No more messages about server being offline etc. But this was an unacceptable solution opening up my server to the world just would not do.

So, today I had a few hours to spare & was determined to nail this little bars#@rd of a problem.

Having lots of old hardware around (I am a tech running my own repair busness) I put together a very basic box meeting minimum specs and I did a complete new WHS2011 install. Comparing the firewall entries I found whole groups of entries (dozens of them) missing from my existing WHS2011 that were listed in the firewall on the new WHS2011

I then exported the firewall registry entries on the new install located at ....

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules]

to a reg file on a memory stick and then ran that reg file on my old install.

Rebooted server and OH YEAH!!!!! all my problems are solved.

Attached is the reg file as a txt file.

For those of you new to reg files save that file WHS2011-firewall-fix.txt to your server (desktop is fine, you can move it later) and then right-click & rename the file and change the three letter extension from txt to reg

Next just double-left click the file to run it and agree to the warnings given by your Server.

Now reboot your server. Done. Hope this works for you.

I chose to reset the server firewall to defaults first because I had played with all sorts of settings in various attenpts to get things to work and wanted to remove all my manual messing about. This reg file will not remove any manual rules you have added. Be aware that choosing to default the firewall settings first does not include Remote Desktop Connection so temporarily hook up a monitor, keyboard & mouse first. Everything including Remote Desktop will be back on when you reboot.