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Old Dec 16, 2003 | 4:58 pm
  #1  
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Online Firewall Tests

I read about these on the way home from a trip yesterday on the flight, sites that break into your computer to see if your firewalls are working or not

http://scan.sygatetech.com/
http://www.auditmypc.com/freescan/prefcan.asp
http://www.qualys.com/research/rnd/rv10/

(you need your IP address for the last one, you can get that at whatismyipaddress.com or the first two tests will tell you)


(the full story is at http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,111124,00.asp )
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Old Dec 16, 2003 | 6:29 pm
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Thanks! I wasn't aware of those.

I've used https://www.grc.com/

These are fun tests to run.
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Old Dec 17, 2003 | 6:33 am
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Watch out for GRC. Visit http://www.grcsucks.com for information about the scam.
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Old Dec 17, 2003 | 1:44 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by planear:
Watch out for GRC. Visit http://www.grcsucks.com for information about the scam.</font>
I concur. GRC should be avoided.
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Old Dec 17, 2003 | 7:10 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by DisgruntledGoat:
I concur. GRC should be avoided.</font>
Very interesting indeed. I must admit I was unaware of all of this controversy over grc. Fascinating reading.

That said, I've only run their port scanning tool as a lark. None of the other abovementiond scanners show that I have a vulnerable system, which is as it should be since I believe I've configured my FW to spec
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Old Dec 17, 2003 | 8:42 pm
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When I'm on my wireless here at home, these scans show my http port 80 as open. But at other locations and when I'm on dial-up it shows all ports including 80 as "Stealth."

Am I correct that this is somehow just because I'm using the Wi-Fi connection and that it's not really a security problem but something going on between my laptop and the Wi-Fi station? I know there's something going on there about 2 different IPs and such, but I don't really understand all that.

I certainly don't have Frontpage or any other personal web server running that I can find.

Thanks.

[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited Dec 17, 2003).]
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Old Dec 17, 2003 | 10:15 pm
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I'm inherently lazy and rely on a secure workstation (fully patched with stupid services shut off) and an IDS, like BlackICE Defender.
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Old Dec 18, 2003 | 7:27 am
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by planear:
Watch out for GRC. Visit http://www.grcsucks.com for information about the scam.</font>
I can't quite figure out what the "scam" is from this site. It seems really poorly disorganized for someone trying to learn his position, and strikes me as a site thrown up out of personal malice. I'm not denying that there might be a scam, I'm just saying that this site doesn't explain it clearly to an outsider and looks like a personal hate site.
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Old Dec 18, 2003 | 8:30 am
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by robb:
I can't quite figure out what the "scam" is from this site. It seems really poorly disorganized for someone trying to learn his position, and strikes me as a site thrown up out of personal malice. I'm not denying that there might be a scam, I'm just saying that this site doesn't explain it clearly to an outsider and looks like a personal hate site.</font>
The "grc s*cks" site says outright that there isn't a scam.
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Old Dec 18, 2003 | 9:42 am
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www.grcsucks.com is more or less a collection of personal rants and arguments against Steve Gibson's statements. Some articles are pretty valid, while others are obtuse and silly, like the link to shrine of Steve Gibson's mustache.

I still think many things Steve provides are very useful, but of course no one person can be an expert on everything, so it's going to be easy to poke holes in some things Steve says.
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Old Dec 18, 2003 | 9:56 am
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In my opinion, Steve Gibson is a sensationalist who plays up minor security problems to advance his own career. The whole issue with Universal Plug and Play is the one example that really sticks out in my mind, he basically single-handedly made a mountain out of that mole hill.
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Old Dec 18, 2003 | 6:51 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by PremEx:
When I'm on my wireless here at home, these scans show my http port 80 as open. But at other locations and when I'm on dial-up it shows all ports including 80 as "Stealth."

Am I correct that this is somehow just because I'm using the Wi-Fi connection and that it's not really a security problem but something going on between my laptop and the Wi-Fi station? I know there's something going on there about 2 different IPs and such, but I don't really understand all that.

I certainly don't have Frontpage or any other personal web server running that I can find.

Thanks.

[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited Dec 17, 2003).]
</font>
Wireless routers are typically configured via an html page, thus they are webservers all by themselves. My netgear router is configured in just this way.

I suspect that is why you are seeing a positive response from port 80 when you are on your wireless network.

The router should be password protected, so as long as you are not using the default password you should be fine.
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Old Dec 19, 2003 | 1:49 am
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Thank You birdstrike.
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