microsoft
MouseWithoutBorders - "Add firewall rule" vs "Same subnet only"
Microsoft PowerToys version
0.91.0
Installation method
WinGet
Area(s) with issue?
Mouse Without Borders
Steps to reproduce
- Two computers with IPs from different subnets... (obviously, both with MWB installed, configured with a same key, etc.)
- Enabled routing between those subnets... (allowed communication between the IPs, at least on TCP ports: 15100, 15101)
- MWB's option: "Same subnet only" set to 'Off'... (wasn't that the default?)
- Click "Add a firewall rule for Mouse Without Borders"... (or just "upgrade" PowerToys... I believe it sometimes recreates that rule whether you ask it or not)
✔️ Expected Behavior
MWB connections should just work - regardless of what subnet the other computer's IP is in.
❌ Actual Behavior
The 'PowerToys.MouseWithoutBorders' firewall rule is (re)created with "Remote IP address" set to allow "Local subnet" only. That might be fine if "Same subnet only" were set to 'On' but not when it's 'Off'!
Additional Information
Let me just say: this was a huge surprise finding that rule configured this way when you literally ask MWB to "allow other subnets"... I had spent hours troubleshooting why MWB recently stopped working for me (in my weird, quite locked-down network), looking for culprits everywhere but here - inside the firewall rule that MWB creates itself (you'd expect that should fix problems if anything, not add new ones!). What a relief that when making the simple change in that rule (manually) suddenly fixed all my connection issues.
And I've actually tracked this down in code already, to this line - invoking netsh advfirewall firewall add rule ... remoteip=LocalSubnet ...
Looks like a very easy fix - if it were to skip the option entirely...
Or slightly more involved if that were to "depend" on the 'Same subnet only' setting.
Other Software
No response
