Re: how to stop messenger

From: Alun Jones [MS MVP] (alun_at_texis.com)
Date: 09/04/03 

Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 14:18:11 GMT

In article <#0e6qjqcDHA.2580@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl>, "mk"
<michaelkovacs@videotron.ca> wrote:
>1) Latest Windows Platforms are prone to be abused by unscrupulous mass
>advertisers that use for their dirty purpose the client-server warning
>mechanism. Microsoft makes no patch and does not care to inform and help the
>public on this very serious security loophole.

Because the security loophole occurs before then, at the border between your
network and the Internet, where you should install a firewall.

>2) The general advise is to switch on the XP's built in firewall in order to
>stop incoming net traffic, seemingly all. (why do we have the net at all
>then?)

It's certainly not so that anyone and his wife can send me any damn packet
they choose! All software has bugs - that's a frequently proven maxim.
This means that most network software is exploitable, if only you can figure
out the magic packet that can kill it. So, why not protect your network
software from all but the packets that you want? That is the purpose of a
firewall, to ensure that the only stuff coming into your computer is stuff
you ask for. I've been using a firewall for the last several years, and it
has not impinged on my use of the Internet at all.

>3) How it will work together with ZoneAlarm or other firewalls and how can
>one play interactive games with other servers is a question that first shall
>be find out.

Each game is pretty much a law unto itself, because they vary in how they
assign ports, and how connections between players (if those are even
allowed) are made. Only by looking at individual games' tech support sites
can you find out this sort of information. Most modern games will work
quite happily in conjunction with modern firewalls.

>4) There is a cumbersome method opening individually ports for friendly
>connections if required -described rudimentarily somewhere in the
>knowledge-base. That may help. I will try it as a last resort.

How often do you have to accept incoming connections? Are you running a
server?

Finally, note that worms like Blaster are stopped by firewalls (although
there is always the possibility that infected machines can contact your
network through other means - see, for instance, that some systems at one
company got infected when a visiting salesman plugged his laptop into the
company LAN - behind the firewall), because they are trying to send
malicious packets on ports that are open, but not particularly well used.

Alun.
~~~~

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