Testing your firewall security

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by Pia

It says one of my ports is visible but closed And it said this

His point is that the starting point for a random hacker would be to scan a range of IP addresses. If your ports are all invisible, he doesn't know whether anyone is using that IP. If you have a closed but visible port, the hacker knows there is computer using that IP and depending on the visible port may even be able to determine what OS/firewall is on there. That's the theory anyway.
In practice, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[Anonymouse]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

Not quite true - there should be no direct way to get through a router firewall, but it is quite possible for you to unwittingly download a trojan that opens up a tunnel back to the would be hacker That is where a 'decent' software firewall helps.

Good point. Does Norton qualify as a decent firewall?

Mind you, many trojans gain access via popups...and I'm running Firefox, which of course tells popups to get stuffed unless you say otherwise. I'm also running NoScript (thanks to Carol a.k.a. Bald Eagle of the Windows Annoyances forum for that one!), so malicious Java code can go play with itself, too.

[mrmistoffelees]

Originally Posted by Anonymouse

Good point. Does Norton qualify as a decent firewall?

Mind you, many trojans gain access via popups...and I'm running Firefox, which of course tells popups to get stuffed unless you say otherwise. I'm also running NoScript (thanks to Carol a.k.a. Bald Eagle of the Windows Annoyances forum for that one!), so malicious Java code can go play with itself, too.

Norton is a big pile of pap i'm afraid to say (well, im not but you know what i mean )