What outgoing ports need to be open?

[Guest]

I am locking down my Windows XP machine, and want tto know what ports need to
remain open in my router for automated outgoing communication from XP (and
what is each for)? I currently have all ports closed, and see attempted
accesses from XP to various IP addresses mapping to msn.net at various ports.
The only thing I'm aware of that would need an open port would be auto-update
of XP. Can anyone point me to details on what ports are used by XP services,
and what they are for?

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I am locking down my Windows XP machine, and want tto know what ports
need to remain open in my router for automated outgoing communication
from XP (and what is each for)? I currently have all ports closed,
and see attempted accesses from XP to various IP addresses mapping to
msn.net at various ports. The only thing I'm aware of that would need
an open port would be auto-update of XP. Can anyone point me to
details on what ports are used by XP services, and what they are for?

The ports you need opened depends on what you want to do..
Use MSN Messenger? Yahoo Messenger? AIM? Jabber? Miranda? Trillian? Another
messenger service?
Running a web page?
Using Remote Desktop?
Might use Remote Assistance?
Want to use Automatic Updates?
Have an FTP server?
Want to use Telnet? Secure Telnet?

If you know how to setup VPN or an SSH tunnel, some of this becomes null and
void.

Common Ports
http://www.portforward.com/cports.htm

 

[Guest]

I guess my question is more like...

Aside from any application progarms that may need to access the Internet,
what ports are used in the default XP install without any user intervention,
and what are they for? I am currently blocking all ports at the firewall for
this machine, and even when doing nothing on the machine, I am getting
attempted outgoing accesses to a variety of IP addresses, many that map to
msn.net. I'm interested in knowing what is causing them, what they are for,
and how I can shut them off.

Thanks,
G

 

[Guest]

Whatever programs or services are attempting to communicate are pretty smart.
I keep blocking the any new IP addresses in the hosts file, and keep all
ports blocked in the firewall, but new IP addresses and new ports keep
getting tried. The outgoing ports don't map to any standard protoccols that I
know of (recent attempts tried using outgoing ports in the 1020s through
1040s).

Interestingly, one set of outgoing attempts tries ten times every 10
minutes. This is to an HP IP addresss (it is an HP machine) according to
lookup, though HP support denies that it is a valid HP address. This one uses
outgoing port 9370 among others, trying to connect to sneezy.external.hp.com
at ports 377 UDP & 487 TCP.

But I'm really more concerned right now with the what communications are
being attempted to Microsoft. The HP one is much easier to control.