Hi All, I am pretty new to windows operating system, i was trying to complete Windows Fundamentals from HTB academy. There is a section which discusses about NTFS vs Share Permissions, as part of that there is an exercise which requires us to make an smbclient connection from PwnBox to target windows computer. However it fails with the following error. smbclient -L 10.129.183.149 -U htb-student do_connect: Connection to 10.129.183.149 failed (Error NT_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT) This is what i have tried:- I failed adding a windows defender firewall inbound rule and thought the firewall may be blocking the connection, i went ahead and turned off the windows firewall defender completely, but still faced the same issue. some threads on stackover flow suggested to add this line in /etc/samba/smb.conf client min protocol = NT1 I tried but failed. And the last thing i tried was add an entry in /etc/hosts file as someone were suggesting its a DNS resolution problem. This also didn’t work. Can someone pls guide me, i want to make a successful smbclient connection and i must be able to access a SHARE that i have created on the windows target system. I am happy if i get some hints ?
You need to either have the right inbound FW rule or simply turn off the PUBLIC FW
Just download VMWare Workstation or Virtual box, get Parrot or Kali and enjoy the HTB platform. WINDOWS 
!!!
PS. Did you connect the machine with openVPN ?!
I’m stuck on this too. What do you mean by FW rule?
LOL don’t worry, just figured out what FW stands for.
where can i buy office log
Don’t know if you figured it out but I ran into the same problem and I fixed it by specifying a rule on Defender firewall to specifically allow inbound traffic on TCP port 445, which the default port for smbclient.
Solution for the issue
Dear Academy members,
For anybody still having the NT_STATUS_IO_TIMEOUT issue in the Windows Fundamentals Module, the reason causing your inability to ping/interact with the machine (besides port 3389) is the Windows Defender Firewall.
In order to fix the issue, you must open the Windows Defender Firewall settings in the target machine.
Head into the Turn Windows Defender Firewall on or off section, and turn off the options.
Best of luck with your studies!
lypd0