At 10:19 PM 2/7/03 -0500, Kevin wrote:
I'm not familiar with the product TaxCut, but your question prompts me to remind you that "firewall" has more than one meaning.I am having problems with uploading TaxCut. Help desks states I have to disable the firewall to have it complete. Does anyone have a quick way to disable the firewall to allow the upload then turn the firewall back on?Running Dachstein firewall - two floppy disk system thanks for any help or directions....
In the context of LEAF, a firewall (or, more exactly, a router/firewall) is a device separate from your workstation that provides security for an entire LAN. But the other (related) meaning of firewall is a piece of software that runs on your workstation and provides security against threats coming from the network. Instructions from the ninnies who staff product "help" desks don't make the distinction clear, but they usually refer to the second sort of firewall.
Depending on the details of your connection to the Internet, you may not be able to "disable the firewall" in the first (LEAF) context, specifically not if your LAN is NAT'd. The firewall code is what handles IP Masquerading and thereby allows the hosts on a NAT'd LAN to share a single, public IP address.
If your workstation is on a LAN that has real IP addresses, and your LEAF router only routes and firewalls, but does not NAT, then a little reading in the Ipchains HowTo will equip you to temporarily remove your firewall protections. (Set your default input, output, and forward policies to ACCEPT, then clear the chains of rules.)
If it is NAT'd, your only way of accommodating the software provider may be temporarily to connect your workstation directly to your Internet connection, bypassing the LAN and LEAF router entirely.
Were it me, I would do neither of these things. I'd find different tax-prep software, or tell TaxCut to send a CD. Software companies shouldn't use delivery or installation methods that rely on people being trusting (or, I would say, naive) enough to think that it is safe to turn off their firewalls when asked to.
--
-------------------------------------------"Never tell me the odds!"--------
Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo
Palo Alto, California, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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