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#51 2005-01-19 12:03 pm
- Jehannum
- Banned
- From: Albuquerque
- Registered: 1999-07-24
- Posts: 8404
Re: How secure is your Internet connection?
Oh, and I'm moving this to the Networking forum.
"Goodness he just keeps going and going. He's like the energizer bunny of stupid." - Neut
Your powers are useless! I'm wearing my tin-foil underwear!
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#52 2005-01-19 12:04 pm
- MattElmore
- Member
- From: Tuscaloosa, AL
- Registered: 2003-02-28
- Posts: 1778
- Website
Re: How secure is your Internet connection?
Thanks for answering my answer 
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#53 2005-03-12 8:59 am
- allan
- Member
- Registered: 2000-09-19
- Posts: 1084
Re: How secure is your Internet connection?
Jehannum wrote:
Ok people, not everybody is as hardcore and knowledgeable about security, what can us normal folks do to be safe? I fail the shields up test every time with all ports stealthed, but it responds to the damned ping. Now somebody said that's normal, but then why doesn't the site pass you and explain that? Because the guy running it is crazy scared or because you should hide your system from pings too? If so, how does one do that on os x?
You don't pass because Steve Gibson is a tin-foil pated lunatic.
A system that returns ICMP ECHO responses (pings) is perfectly reasonable and not insecure in the least.
Okay, that's acceptable. However, let's assume I'm anal and paranoid and don't want my computer to respond to any ICMP pings at all. How do I go about configuring this with OS X's built-in firewall? I've tried and it still responds to the ICMP ping on Steve Gibson's website. Can I block ICMP pings using a router? If so, how? And will doing so hinder Internet performance in any way?
Right now, I have an Alphashield which I received as a gift for Christmas. While it passes all the tests on Gibson's website with flying colors, I hate it because it doesn't allow me to temporarily open up ports for use with BitTorrent, iChatAV, Acquisition, etc.
I just bought a D-Link DI-604, and while it makes all my ports stealth, it still responds to the ICMP ping. I cannot get it to NOT respond to it the way the Alphashied can. While I know that this is nothing to worry about as you and others have suggested, I am nevertheless curious as to how to configure my router to not respond to the ICMP ping the way the Alphashield can, or if it's even possible.
If it can't be done, then it can't be done. I was just curious from an academic standpoint, that's all.
(Sorry for digging up an old thread.)
Edit: Nevermind, I found out how to do it. I just enabled the "Discard PING from WAN side" under the Tools > Misc. tab...
Last edited by allan (2005-03-18 2:38 am)
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