title: Connecting to WMI: 0x800706ba errors on some machines (but not all)
body: <p>When I try to connect to WMI from Powershell, ConfigMgr, or WMI explorer, I can talk to the majority of my computers, but some (maybe 30%?) return an 0x800706ba (RPC server is unavailable).</p>
  
  <p>If I turn the firewall off on the remote machine, the queries start working.  I have tried a bunch of different configurations of firewall settings, though, and I can't seem to figure out what the right combination of exceptions is.</p>
  
  <p>Here's the relevant bits of my firewall config on the remote machine.  The crazy part is that there are <strong>no drops</strong> listed in pfirewall.log when it doesn't work - but again, if I turn off the firewall on the remote computer, everything starts to behave.</p>
  
  <p>I will babysit this thread since I know you'll probably need more details to diagnose this.</p>
  
  <pre><code>Domain profile configuration (current):
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Operational mode                  = Enable
  Exception mode                    = Enable
  Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
  Notification mode                 = Enable
  
  Service configuration for Domain profile:
  Mode     Customized  Name
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Enable   No          Remote Desktop
  
  Allowed programs configuration for Domain profile:
  Mode     Name / Program
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Enable   Remote Assistance / C:\WINDOWS\system32\sessmgr.exe
  Enable   Network Diagnostics for Windows XP / C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
  
  Port configuration for Domain profile:
  Port   Protocol  Mode     Name
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  3389   TCP       Enable   Remote Desktop
  
  Standard profile configuration:
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Operational mode                  = Enable
  Exception mode                    = Enable
  Multicast/broadcast response mode = Enable
  Notification mode                 = Enable
  
  Service configuration for Standard profile:
  Mode     Customized  Name
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Enable   No          Remote Desktop
  
  Allowed programs configuration for Standard profile:
  Mode     Name / Program
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Enable   Remote Assistance / C:\WINDOWS\system32\sessmgr.exe
  Enable   McAfee Framework Service / C:\Program Files\McAfee\Common Framework\FrameworkService.exe
  Enable   Network Diagnostics for Windows XP / C:\WINDOWS\Network Diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe
  
  Port configuration for Standard profile:
  Port   Protocol  Mode     Name
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  3389   TCP       Enable   Remote Desktop
  
  Log configuration:
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  File location   = C:\WINDOWS\pfirewall.log
  Max file size   = 4096 KB
  Dropped packets = Disable
  Connections     = Disable
  
  Bluetooth Network Connection firewall configuration:
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Operational mode                  = Enable
  
  Local Area Connection firewall configuration:
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Operational mode                  = Enable
  
  Wireless Network Connection firewall configuration:
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Operational mode                  = Enable
  
  1394 Connection firewall configuration:
  -------------------------------------------------------------------
  Operational mode                  = Enable
  </code></pre>