I'm troubleshooting a direct Ethernet connection between laptops. I can ping the other laptop over the RJ45 cable, but the other laptop cannot ping mine, and pinging my own Ethernet adapter's IPv4 address returns "General failure." Loopback at 127.0.0.1 works, and my Wi-Fi IPv4 address also responds normally. I've already tried restarting, running `netsh winsock reset`, `netsh int ip reset`, and flushing the DNS cache. What could be preventing the Ethernet interface from responding to its own address?
2 Answers
Check whether the Ethernet connection is being treated as a public or private network. For a direct laptop-to-laptop connection, set it to Private if appropriate, then allow Network Discovery and File and Printer Sharing through Windows Defender Firewall. Those settings affect whether another computer can ping or connect to the laptop, although they do not normally explain a local ping failure by themselves.
Pinging 127.0.0.1 only tests the Windows TCP/IP loopback stack, so it doesn’t confirm that the Ethernet adapter is functioning correctly. Since the Ethernet address itself produces “General failure,” check the adapter’s status and configuration first: make sure it has a valid, non-duplicate IPv4 address and subnet mask, and inspect Device Manager for driver errors. Also temporarily disable and re-enable the Ethernet adapter, or reinstall/update its driver. A firewall can block incoming echo requests, but it usually wouldn’t cause Windows to report a local “General failure.”
127.0.0.1 works, and the Wi-Fi address works too. The issue appears limited to the Ethernet adapter’s own IPv4 address.
I enabled Network Discovery and File and Printer Sharing in the advanced sharing settings, but the Ethernet address still gives the same error.