Palworld Dedicated Server would not accept Hamachi connections because of a Windows Firewall block rule

On Windows 11, I started Palworld Dedicated Server and tried to play with a remote friend through Hamachi. The client could not join, and nothing appeared in the server log.

Hamachi showed both peers online, and the server was listening on the default UDP 8211 port. The cause was a leftover Windows Firewall block rule named Pal.

Hamachi’s peer diagnosis said the tunnel and adapter were fine, but the traffic test showed inbound traffic being blocked.

With Windows’ built-in PktMon, I could see packets from the participant reaching UDP 8211 on the server PC, but the server sent 0 replies. The detailed trace also showed these drop reasons:

INET: receive inspection
INET: transport endpoint was not found
Inspection drop

“Hamachi is online” and “PalServer is listening on UDP 8211” do not prove that packets can pass through Windows internally.

References: Hamachi peer diagnostics / Diagnose packet loss with PktMon

In wf.msc → Inbound Rules, there were two enabled block rules for PalServer-Win64-Shipping-Cmd.exe.

• Name: Pal
• Action: Block the connection
• Protocol: one TCP rule and one UDP rule
• Local port: all ports
• Profiles: Private and Public

Windows Firewall prioritizes explicit block rules over conflicting allow rules. Microsoft explains that when the first-use app permission dialog is denied or closed, Windows usually creates both TCP and UDP block rules. These two rules had that shape.

Reference: Windows Firewall rules and precedence

After confirming that the executable was PalServer’s, I disabled only the two Pal block rules. Instead, I kept an inbound allow rule narrowed to these conditions:

• Program: the PalServer-Win64-Shipping-Cmd.exe in my install path
• Protocol and port: UDP 8211
• Profile: Public
• Interface: Hamachi
• Remote IP address: 25.0.0.0/8

After the change, the capture showed 1,766 server responses to 10 packets from the participant, and they could join normally.

You do not need to turn off the whole firewall or allow every port. If you changed Palworld’s port, replace UDP 8211 with the actual listening port.

Reference: Palworld Server Guide: Configure the server