No Longer "Stealthed".

[Sadie]

Hello,

Sorry to sound like such a wuss,but I am finding it hard
to deal with the fact I just failed grc.com's "Tru-
Stealth" analysis..Please read the following bearing in
mind it's written with a wry sense of humour,I'm not
angry or anything.Perplexed,maybe.

Obviously,with increasing evil-behaviour on the
Internet,I became convinced that the safest way forward
was to invest in a router.(Yes,I have the best A.V.,anti-
trojan/dialler software known to mankind.I also ran the
greatest software firewall on the planet,but since Beta
RC1 killed it,I have been using the inbuilt XP firewall.)

Suffice to say,knowing that my computer is suddenly
responding to incoming pings is very distressing.All the
XP "Worm Services" are shutdown,quite frankly,if I close
any more ports,I wont have Internet access.

The problem is most certainly with the router.Grc
obtained my I.P.address correctly,so,it was definately my
P.C.that responded(i.e.not the router).There's no problem
with XP SPRC1,because after installing it and doing the
usual safety-tweaks,I was "Truly Stealthed" so to speak.

Any ideas how to harden the router?It came pre-
configured,and I'd like to avoid blundering in and making
it even more insecure.Should add,I don't have a home
network.I'm just endeavouring to defend a single much
beloved P.C.

Thanks for reading,I feel better now.

 

[Sadie]

Hello,Pavel,

Well,before I got the router,and was running the XP
firewall (no exceptions),all was in order.Utterly
invisible,I was!I installed the router,and GRC tells me
my computer is now responding to ICMP pings...YES,the XP
firewall is still up and not permitting any exceptions...

Actually,I've been racking my brains over this
one.Decided to open up a command line and run ipconfig.
My I.P. address is now totally different to the one
detected by GRC (My previous,static I.P. address,pre-
router)

So,I think perhaps the old,static address actually
belongs to the I.S.P.,and maybe,it's their computer
that's replying to the pings.Does that make any sense?

-----Original Message-----
"Sadie" <[email protected]> wrote in

message news:[email protected]...

 

[Pavel A.]

Yes,I have the best A.V.,anti-
trojan/dialler software known to mankind.I also ran the
greatest software firewall on the planet,but since Beta
RC1 killed it,I have been using the inbuilt XP firewall.)

Suffice to say,knowing that my computer is suddenly
responding to incoming pings is very distressing.All the
XP "Worm Services" are shutdown,quite frankly,if I close
any more ports,I wont have Internet access.

So you enabled the new SP2 firewall on your dialup connection,
and selected "No exceptions", and the GRC test still sees you. Correct?

--PA

 

[Sadie]

Absolutely none of those boxes are ticked in the advanced
section of the XP firewall settings,Pavel.After doing
ipconfig,I'm not sure it is my computer sending packet
responses.Looked it up on the net,seems ADSL routers are
prone to this.Unfortunately,I don't know how to prevent
it yet.

I've contacted the router suppliers,anyway.I'll ask them
how to stop the blooming thing responding.I'll also call
the I.S.P and ask what exactly that "visible" address is.
Confusing,really.When all's said and done,whether the
I.P. address profiled by GRC.COM belonged to me/the
I.S.P.,it was always stealthed before.

Thanks for replying,anyway.

Sadie

-----Original Message-----
"Sadie" <[email protected]> wrote in

message news:[email protected]...

 

[Pavel A.]

Hello,Pavel,

Well,before I got the router,and was running the XP
firewall (no exceptions),all was in order.Utterly
invisible,I was!I installed the router,and GRC tells me
my computer is now responding to ICMP pings...YES,the XP
firewall is still up and not permitting any exceptions...

Ping reply can be disabled somewehere deep in the advanced properties
of the XP firewall. This is independent from exceptions control.
More questions -> microsoft.public.windows.networking.firewall

Regards
--PA

 

[Thomas Wendell]

You just wouldn't happen to have been assigned (with $$$) an static IP from
your ISP? And that Ip is the one your router is using? And you have NAT
enabled on the router? If that's the case, the not-stealthed mode comes from
your router answering the requests from grc. I THINK it's answering
something like not available, but as it is answering grc thinks there is
something at taht location...


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[Sadie]

Hello,Thomas,

Yes,it's something like that!

After contacting the router manufacturers,I learned (!?)
that though my actual P.C. is dynamically assigned a new
I.P. address every couple of days,the router hosts the
static I.P. address that I've been allocated by the I.S.P.

So,basically,it's the router that's sending
echoes/packets/whatever to our Steve at GRC.COM.(Still
not entirely comfortable with that.)

Gosh! So much to learn,so little time...

Sadie

 

[Thomas Wendell]

Well, at least now you know why "you're not stealthed" anymore (although
actually you are stealthed two ways, unless you configure some
port-forwarding on the router...)
YW

--
Tumppi
Reply to group
=================================================
Most learned here on nntp://news.mircosoft.com
Helsinki, Finland (remove NO _SPAM)
(translations from FI/SE not always accurate)
=================================================




"Sadie" <[email protected]> kirjoitti viestissä
Hello,Thomas,

Yes,it's something like that!

After contacting the router manufacturers,I learned (!?)
that though my actual P.C. is dynamically assigned a new
I.P. address every couple of days,the router hosts the
static I.P. address that I've been allocated by the I.S.P.

So,basically,it's the router that's sending
echoes/packets/whatever to our Steve at GRC.COM.(Still
not entirely comfortable with that.)

Gosh! So much to learn,so little time...

Sadie