I've got an ongoing problem with Windows 2012 incoming connections (I won't go into that now as its on another question). However to do some on-site testing. I believe I need to disable the Base Filtering Engine and dependent IPSec and firewall services in order to prove they are not the cause.
Before I go and try, I want to know is this possible and will still be able to communicate over the LAN with the server or does stopping them lock me out of any networking altogether?
Answering my own question, yes it was easy and didn't cause a problem. If you stop the BFE service and not just the Windows Firewall, you lose connectivity for a second only. The Windows Firewall and other services dependent on the BFE, such as IPsec PolicyAgent will stop but it seems to be safe to do remotely. Beware of stopping the Windows Firewall service on its own as that will lock you out! Starting back up with the Windows Firewall service first, that will start the BFE and there another one second loss of connectivity.