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Do I need a firewall?

Discussion in 'Community Broadband & Computers' started by chattycat, Jul 1, 2004.

  1. brim

    brim Member

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    closed is better than 'stealth'...closed means theres no way someone can get in.
     
  2. Pats_fan

    Pats_fan Former Resident

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    According to what I read, stealth is better because its existence on the net is completely invisible. A "closed" port is visible to an intruder, but they just cannot access it (or cannot easily(?) access it). I did a full port scan, and 1055 out of 1056 ports are all in stealth mode, with only port 113 in closed mode.
     
  3. brim

    brim Member

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    security through obscurity is no security at all. :)

    kinda like hiding a key to your house under a rock, you know it's there but someone else may not...but might luck up and find it and you're out of luck....whereas if you didn't have the key there in the first place, there'd never be a problem. :)
     
  4. Dwarflord

    Dwarflord New Member

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    Agreed:
    Closed = 100% chance no access
    Stealth = Some chance to access
    I prefer 100% no access.

    DwArFlOrD
     
  5. Pats_fan

    Pats_fan Former Resident

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    OK, so someone can stumble onto a "stealthed" port. Once they know it is actually there, though, does that mean that it is essentially "open" to whatever they want to do with it? Is there a 2nd line of defense if a stealthed port is discovered?

    And can't a "closed" port still be hacked?
     
  6. brim

    brim Member

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    A stealth port just drops the packet, a closed port responds with a packet with the reset flag set indicating that there's nothing open on that port. Since it drops the packet, there's really no way anyone can send data to you via that port.

    Closed ports can't be hacked because there's nothing running on that port to hack...and you certinally can't remotely open a port via an exploit. In short, as long as nothing you don't want open is open, you're fine.

    Also, keep in mind that that grc.com scanner only scans the first 1024 ports on your computer...there are 65535 ports available for use, meaning some malware could open a service on a high port and you may never know about it. Not to instill paranoia as those high-port attacks are mostly used in the *nix community to hack root via an open telnet running on some high port (31337!)...most windows exploits come in via one of the most used ports for MS services.
     
  7. neilz

    neilz New Member

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    Actually ... you should read Steve Gibson's answer on why you want stealth:

    So you see, when Steve says your ports are stealthed, they are closed, but not responding to any probes. He also has some other FAQs that will explain why port 113 is closed not stealthed by some firewalls, etc: http://www.grc.com/faq-shieldsup.htm


    Neil Z.
    Resident since 1999
     
  8. Carol Al-Ajroush

    Carol Al-Ajroush New Member

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    My .02 worth from experience is everyone should have a firewall. We only installed ours a few weeks ago after my son ran some various diagnostics and tests and discovered we had had more than 700 intrusions on our system! Live and learn.
     
  9. SoxFan

    SoxFan New Member

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    Carol, what kind of test can you run to find out if you've had intruders? How do you tell if you're protected? We've got all kinds of crap on this computer but no idea if we are protected.
     
  10. neilz

    neilz New Member

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    What kinds of 'crap' do you mean? AntiVirus programs, antispyware ?? These sorts of programs do not prevent intrusions, you need a firewall, such as Zone Alarm, or Norton Personal Firewall.

    To test your machine, head to www.grc.com, and run the 'Shields Up' test. It is an eye opener if you don't have a firewall installed.

    Neil Z.
    Resident since 1999
     
  11. SoxFan

    SoxFan New Member

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    thanks for the reference Neil. I'm gonna check it out now.
     
  12. beahmer

    beahmer Member

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    Brim,

    thanks for the site - used it to test my current firewall configuartion and happy to report all's safe - for now....
     
  13. SoxFan

    SoxFan New Member

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    NeilZ, thanks for the info...I checked it out and I guess with all this "stuff" on here I'm okay.
     
  14. neilz

    neilz New Member

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    You're welcome !

    Neil Z.
    Resident since 1999
     
  15. Carol Al-Ajroush

    Carol Al-Ajroush New Member

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    This is exactly one of the tests my son ran and then we installed Zone Alert as well as a few other programs on our system.


     

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