Sheilds Up...?

[CarlTR6]

Do you have UDP and netbios blocked? These are the usual culprits. Usually router firewalls have an option to block pings and/or a place to enable stealth. Also are you a gamer? If so, do you have ports forwarded for playing on line with other players? This will open you up to pings.

 

[smarteyeball]

P.s: I can no longer hold back... Somethings are need to be straighten out about firewalls

Cheers mate

 

[zzz2496]

I haven't looked at GRC for a few years, with a prior computer and OS and passed perfectly.
With this computer and Win 7 and Comodo Firewall I fail: all ports are closed and ping is allowed.
Tried different settings both on my router/modem (motorola 3347) and Comodo but just can't find where to fix the settings.
Any thoughts?
TIA

If you are directly connected to the internet (as in you have a public IP assigned to your NIC), then look into your COMODO configuration, see if you can find "ICMP", and block it. That should take care the PING failure.

zzz2496

 

[Samcro]

Well as it turns out that Motorola doesn't have a easily configurable firewall and I couldn't find the correct settings in Comodo. One would think that using the Stealth Ports Wizard would fix that but not to be: at least on my system.
All is good now though. The Motorola was having problems so Qwest came out and replaced it with an Actiontec PK5000. It has a configurable firewall, and once I enabled it and unchecked the ICMP reply it passed the tests and all ports are stealth.

 

[CarlTR6]

Well as it turns out that Motorola doesn't have a easily configurable firewall and I couldn't find the correct settings in Comodo. One would think that using the Stealth Ports Wizard would fix that but not to be: at least on my system.
All is good now though. The Motorola was having problems so Qwest came out and replaced it with an Actiontec PK5000. It has a configurable firewall, and once I enabled it and unchecked the ICMP reply it passed the tests and all ports are stealth.

Very good; an updated router was the solution.

 

[malexous]

Norton only stealths 2 ports but all others are closed. (Behind a router firewall.)

 

[CarlTR6]

Norton only stealths 2 ports but all others are closed. (Behind a router firewall.)

Use your router firewall to stealth the ports. If your router's firewall is configured properly, nothing should be getting through to the Norton firewall. ShieldsUp should only testing the hardware firewall.

 

[zzz2496]

Norton only stealths 2 ports but all others are closed. (Behind a router firewall.)

ShieldsUP will only see your router, no other devices will be tested... ShieldsUP won't even know if you have a network behind your firewall. As carl said, setup your hardware firewall properly to eliminate any "error"/"failure" in the test. Oh, and read my post several page back, I explained about how a "firewall" works in case you don't know how a firewall works...

zzz2496

 

[malexous]

Thanks guys but I disabled the router firewall to test Norton. With it on everything is stealthed.

 

[zzz2496]

Thanks guys but I disabled the router firewall to test Norton. With it on everything is stealthed.

What do you mean by "disabled the router firewall"? 99.9% consumer grade firewall in the market works by doing Network Address Translation, even if it has an "enable Firewall" checkbox unchecked, most of the time you are still being firewalled, it's the nature of NAT. Read my guide about firewall in my signature... If you truly want to test your Norton firewall, go plug your self directly to the internet without anything in between, and check if you got IP addres OTHER than 192.x.y.z/10.x.y.z

zzz2496

 

[malexous]

Set the firewall to 'off' but you are right. NAT was still enabled (just checked). I'll re-test later. Thanks.

 

[zzz2496]

Set the firewall to 'off' but you are right. NAT was still enabled (just checked). I'll re-test later. Thanks.

You're welcome, this time it's the "true test" time

zzz2496

 

[kronckew]

an applicable FAQ (<-linky) from the outpost firewall forum. a few years old but still generally applicable.

an excerpt:

...

Scans with a Router
If your Internet connection uses a router (an option for xDSL, cable and satellite connections - not dial-up however) then that router will have its own Internet address and will use Network Address Translation (NAT) to amend packets allowing you to share the Internet connection between several computers. This is an advantage security-wise since the router will be visible on the Internet rather than your computer, but it can make certain applications and online scans harder to set up.

In this case, check the router's configuration - many can be set to give "stealthed" ports but the exact details will depend on the make and model of router. If you do not have appropriate documentation on this, then try an Internet search to see what other users have done.

To scan your PC (and Outpost) you will need to either:

• Reconfigure your router (temporarily!) to pass all incoming packets to your computer - this may be refered to as creating a DMZ, DeMilitarized Zone, or Port Forwarding (for all ports) or;
• Disconnect from your router and use a dial-up connection for the duration of the test only.

Scans with Proxy Servers
If you do not use a router but still have different IP addresses reported, then the next most likely cause is a proxy server. These are common in work or school environments and may be used by some ISPs. In such a case, there may no easy method of obtaining a direct connection, other than attempting a dial-up connection (with another ISP if possible). If in doubt, contact the proxy administrator.

ISP Filtering
There have been cases of people getting "Closed" results for certain ports without having a router or proxy server. In such cases, it is possible that the ISP is blocking some ports and returning an error message in order to prevent the spread of certain worms or trojans. This is most likely for ports widely used by such worms - notably 135-139 and 445.

if you run the grc steallth test, the section of the results page below the graphic goes into more detail on why you might pass without any apparent hardware or software protection. worth reading the whole thing.

while a hardware router/firewall in general offers excellent protection from the outside, it does not protect you from threats inside the firewall, ie. other pc's on the network and/or software that communicates from inside.

i use a software firewall to take care of that aspect, and it also covers a number of other aspects of malware protection, such as HIPS, IP blocking via lists of bad sites, registry and system file protection, anti-leak protection from unpatched exploits, etc. that the hardware firewall does not.

windows 7's upgraded firewall will now cover outgoing, but is quite difficult to configure and manage effectively.

all in all, a layered defence is still a good choice, tho some may not need all the layers. depends on your level of perceived threat and past experience with removing infections or having been a victim of more malicious stuff.

i am of course prejudiced as to which third party firewall to use.

 

[Product FRED]

I passed everything but the ping test. Time to grab a firewall to go along with Avira.

 

[CarlTR6]

Thanks guys but I disabled the router firewall to test Norton. With it on everything is stealthed.

Then you know your hardware firewall is doing its job. The router's firewall is far better than any software firewall. The only reason I use a software firewall is to monitor outgoing.

Thanks guys but I disabled the router firewall to test Norton. With it on everything is stealthed.

What do you mean by "disabled the router firewall"? 99.9% consumer grade firewall in the market works by doing Network Address Translation, even if it has an "enable Firewall" checkbox unchecked, most of the time you are still being firewalled, it's the nature of NAT. Read my guide about firewall in my signature... If you truly want to test your Norton firewall, go plug your self directly to the internet without anything in between, and check if you got IP addres OTHER than 192.x.y.z/10.x.y.z

zzz2496

I got the same results from ShieldsUp with my hardware firewall disabled as I did when when I plugged directly to the internet with a modem. I had total stealth both ways using Comodo.

I noticed in another post that this was not the case. The poster turned off his hardware firewall and the results were the same - as if the hardware firewall was still on.

I am not questioning you; I am just trying to learn and I thank you for the excellent read on how firewalls work.

 

[mpcrsc562]

My PC failed because of Port 0... How is that blocked or stealthed?

Changed routers and passed everything.

 

[CarlTR6]

My PC failed because of Port 0... How is that blocked or stealthed?

Changed routers and passed everything.

Good news! Glad to hear your system is secure.