Myron, What you say bears merit for 'the poor un-educated user' as you term him. I had assumed the reader of this list had a fair amount of computer savvy and was teaching his users to use their heads (I know I certainly have done that and about 30% of my users report ANYTHING suspicious to me - keeps me busy!) With one exception, all my users, even remote, operate behind a router which provides a fair measure of protection. It is hard, nay almost impossible, to protect against a user who opens e-mail attachments or clicks through ads on the Internet (and I have educated my users that that is high risk behavior).
I think you advice is good. I will try to temper my advice and only quote my experience with the caveat that what I recommend is only for the sophisticated user. Alan. Alan Watchorn Eshelman Appraisals, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone (760) 692-4302 Fax (760) 692-4303 [EMAIL PROTECTED] said: > So far I'm quietly watching the progress of topics like this in this > discussion list as well as several other discussion forums and what I read > is frightening, which to me states that Microsoft is right regarding > automatically turning on the firewall on XP's service pack 2. What I > don't agree with is turning off the messenger and alerted services, but at > least this is documented and can be turned back on again, but this is > going off-topic regarding this list. > > John, Windows XP has always had a firewall built in, all be it a simple > firewall, but it's there. For convenience the default configuration was > that it was not turned on. > > Another frightening situation is that many ISP auto-installation scripts > that branded Outlook Express, Internet Explorer and auto-installed the > connectiod omitted to turn the firewall on! So the poor un-educated user > would then connect with their modem to the Internet and expose the entire > operating system to the world. > > Now that this mechanism has been changed everyone is complaining because > it's taking more effort to host servers and services on Windows XP with > SP-2 installed. > > It is not a good idea for any application program to control the port > forwarding rules on ANY firewall. If this was the case then a virus could > land on the computer and configure the firewall itself to allow hackers to > communicate with it. > > Like UPnP on routers is bad news. I have this facility turned off and > take time to turn ports and forwarding rules on and off manually. > > What everyone really needs to do, regardless of the program being used, > find out what inbound ports a legitimate service/server requires and > manually configure the firewall and/or router. > > > At 01:14 08/09/2004, Wall, John wrote: >>Hi Alan, >> >>I have not installed SP2 on XP platform although I did once install the >> beta >>version and immediately uninstalled it because nothing worked afterwards. >> >>My understanding of SP2 XP is that is closes off all ports thus VNC I >> assume >>is stumped. I have not reinstalled SP2 XP but our employer is eager to >> start >>the procedure and I am concerned about VNC with this installation. >> >>As yet haven't read up on what to do but I have read that SP2 XP installs >> a >>firewall with all ports closed off. >> >>So it is possible you need to look at the need to open port 5900 VNC and >>5800 Javascript VNC via a browser. >> >>Just a thought but I would be interested from fellow users of VNC as I >>myself will need to know how to open these ports once SP2 XP has been >>installed. >> >>Regards. >> >>John >> >>> ---------- >>> From: Alan Watchorn[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Sent: Wednesday, 8 September 2004 12:39 AM >>> To: VNC List >>> Subject: RE: server closed connection unexpectedly >>> >>> I use VNC 4.0 on WinXP, Win2000 and Win98 and I have not had any >>> problems. >>> I installed for the first time using VNC 4.0 and have not had any >>> experience >>> with earlier versions or upgrades. Have you tried uninstalling the old >>> version and installing the new version from scratch? >>> >>> Alan Watchorn >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> (760) 692-4300 >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 12:40 AM >>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Subject: server closed connection unexpectedly >>> >>> >>> Today i updated form vnc 3.3 to 4.0... since i'm "using" 4.0, on XP >>> (pro >>> and home whith SP2), i always get the message: >>> "server closed connection unexpectedly" if i try to connect to the >>> server. >>> At the application log i found many errors: "SocketManager: unknown >>> network event for listener". >>> There is no firewall on this machines, also the XP firewall is >>> inactive. >>> >>> Im really frustrated about this... all previous versions worked fine >>> whithout of problems! >>> _______________________________________________ >>> VNC-List mailing list >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> To remove yourself from the list visit: >>> http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list >>> _______________________________________________ >>> VNC-List mailing list >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> To remove yourself from the list visit: >>> http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list >>_______________________________________________ >>VNC-List mailing list >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>To remove yourself from the list visit: >>http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list > _______________________________________________ > VNC-List mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To remove yourself from the list visit: > http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list _______________________________________________ VNC-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To remove yourself from the list visit: http://www.realvnc.com/mailman/listinfo/vnc-list
