Why Is My Firewall Blocking Everything [extra Quality] May 2026

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

I ran a rootkit scan. Nothing. Malwarebytes: clean. System file checker: no integrity violations. So it wasn't a virus. It was something stranger. why is my firewall blocking everything

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

I didn’t have a “she.” I lived alone. My last relationship ended two years ago. But the driver was real. It was running. It had full network stack interception. And it was updating itself every night at 3:17 AM from an IP address that geolocated to… my own apartment building. The apartment directly below mine. System file checker: no integrity violations

I went downstairs. Knocked. No answer. The door was unlocked.

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: