How do I disable multicast on the TCP/IP stack for Windows?

Question

I'd like to disable the TCP/IP stack's support for multicast completely on Windows for diagnostic purposes. How do I do this?

I'm looking to do this on Windows XP, but if none can be provided, instructions for other versions are acceptable, too (Server and Client SKUs, all variations, across versions as well).

Solution

The Win7 firewall has an option about blocking IGMP

inbound rules, new rule, Custom, choose Protocol, then choose IGMP. outbound rules, new rule, ditto

I see no such option in the XP firewall. It knows of ICMP but not IGMP.

The following is kind of in Morbid's answer

win7

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc957547.aspx HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\IGMPLevel <-- set to 0 that is kind of within morbid's "answer".

Set IGMPLevel to 0

WinXP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314053/en-gb

all the TCP/IP parameters are registry values that are located under one of two different subkeys of

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\ID for Adapter

At those keys, set IGMPLevel to 0

---

I haven't tested it though, and on my systems, On my Win7 system or my XP system.. While the keys are there, the name (IGMPLevel) isn't in my registry at those keys. So in my case i'd have to create it.

Comments

[barlop]

What if you load a linux virtual machine and it becomes a question of how to do it in linux. There is a program called netsed which can change packets, do a find and replace on packets.. so you could stop it that way but would be messy. Or a firewall that lets you specify things within a packet. Linux should have something

[barlop]

Perhaps you can include a quick way to test whether it is so. e.g. to quickly generate an IGMP packet. or to test receipt of one.

[barlop]

i'm still interested if you mention what diagnostic test you used to test if IGMP was enabled or disabled

[user314104]

I used Wireshark to confirm it ("test receipt"). Windows XP generated multicast group messages periodically when the functionality was enabled.

[user314104]

You might want to read the question again. I'm not asking to disable the TCP/IP stack; I'm just asking to disable the multicast portion of it.

[user314104]

I tested setting IGMPLevel to 0. This seemed to have worked for what I wanted. Thank you.

[Thalys]

I've edited in the contents of your other answer but the image was much too small to see. Feel free to edit in that image. imgur is the preferred image host here.

[Codebeat]

Doing this makes your connection useless.