12 replies to this topic

[Bavaria]

I checked my computer at symantec site.Security check!

Some ports are opened!What is this thing with ports and how should be?

All closed ?!

Thx!

[Capman]

A brief explanation, ports are like doors, in the sense that they let information enter or exit a pc, however, more ports can be open than is required, which is where a firewall comes in handy as it can monitor traffic to or from these ports.

It would not be good to have all ports closed as then accessing the internet, email and suchlike would be impossible.

A port that is open when it does not need to be can lead to viruses and suchlike entering a pc though.

Like I said this is a brief explanation, and somebody could probably give a far more detailed explanation.

[agumon]

A brief explanation, ports allow applications to access to the internet and network if your have one...

probes are transaction, or program, which is used to gather information about a system or the network.

ports can be either 'open', 'close', or 'stealth'.

'open' ports are visible and it reponse to probes. this is rather highly dangerous because it will allow hackers to easily gain access to your system, especially if open ports are not necessary... system with too many uncessary 'open' ports are also a easy target for network worms...

'close' ports are visible but not open. meaning that the ports are not in used... this however, due to it is still visible, it allow hackers to know that your computer are available and become a possible target. applications cannot access to the network if the required ports are close...

'stealth' port is not visible and does not reponse to probes. meaning that your system is hidden in the internet network.

your scanned result should contain if not all , as many stealth ports as possible... you cannot close all the ports... they might be needed for applications to access to the network...

Like I said this is a brief explanation, and somebody could probably give a far more detailed explanation.

[Andavari]

If you want to learn more with some of the best documentation I've ever seen come with a firewall look at Outpost PDF guides listed on the right hand side of http://www.agnitum.c...roducts/outpost even if you don't use Outpost there's some good info in those guides.

[rridgely]

Bavaria when you did that test did you have Zone Alarm running?

[TwistedMetal]

I ran it with the latest version of ZoneAlarm Free Edition and everything was fine.

[Bavaria]

rridgely, on Jul 2 2005, 08:32 PM, said:

Bavaria when you did that test did you have Zone Alarm running?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I checked with, and w/o ZA.

With ZA is ok!

[rridgely]

Yeah I passed the test to with za free but Bavaria had been having problems with it a while back.

Edit:
(I hate it when you are replying at the same time) Glad that you were ok with ZA running Bavaria. Now you know why it's important to have a firewall running, at the very least use the windows firewall.

[Bavaria]

rridgely, on Jul 2 2005, 08:53 PM, said:

Yeah I passed the test to with za free but Bavaria had been having problems with it a while back.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is solved!

I uninstalled Pc-cillin antivirus!

ZA is working fine and my computer is not restarting when i shutdown.

[TwistedMetal]

Use avast! Home Edition you won't regard it...

[rridgely]

I like avast but untill this offer goes dead I'm going to always recommend this:

Free 12 month license to Computer Associates Etrust EZ antivirus.
This program is so good that once my license is up I am going to pay for a new one.
http://store.ca.com/dr/v2/ec_main.entry25?...5939&CID=190471

[Andavari]

I also like eTrust EZAV. It's one of the few av's I've seen that automatically scans all hard disks not just the C:\ drive. Plus there's essentially no configuration to mess with since it scans everything by default, components have to be disabled for it not to scan everything. Also the 2005 v7 edition seems as if it's using a different more thorough scan routine compared to the older v6 since the scan time takes twice as long on my system.

[Eldmannen]

If a port is open it means there is a daemon (a software that has open a port) that listens on the port, example webserver, ftp server, identd, windows file and print sharing, etc.

If a port is closed it means that there is no daemon listening on the port but computer replies "This port is closed."

If a port is stealth (also known as filtered, it happends when you use some firewall in specific configuration) then the computer totaly ignores the request to the port and dont reply anything.

You can check your ports by portscanning your computer from another computer, or you can type "netstat -a" in the command prompt (console).
You can also get a scan and result at www.grc.com

The less open ports you have, the better it is. All open ports are potential security problems.

Often Windows firewalls are very basic, to get advanced firewall/packet-filtering iptables on Linux is great.