Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with firewall

IMAP over HTTP?

DU — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:49:45 -0800

IMAP through an uncooperative proxy? I'm pretty sure my ideal solution is technically impossible and that simplest workaround is going to be unattractive from a convenience or elegance POV, but:

At work, I can check my personal mail through webmail (i.e. over http(s)). But I would prefer to use Thunderbird. However, the firewall/proxy doesn't allow IMAP. Is there a way I can do this anyway?

My original thought was to tunnel over SSH, but even assuming I can do that on this end, I'm not sure how I'd do it on the server end. (It's a hosted account thing, so I assume I have some latitude, but I don't have full control.)

A coworker ssh's (in a terminal window) to his home machine and runs Mutt or something there, but the whole point here is that I want all my mail to show up inside of Thunderbird.

He also suggested I could do port forwarding on my home machine. It sounds like maybe this old AskMe is the same thing. That seems ugly. Plus I hate to potentially screw up my home network by installing new firmware just to get it working. But maybe that's the only way? And if I do that, is openwrt still the best or is tomato the new hotness?

How can my friend get through his dad's Orwellian firewall?

bewarethewumpus — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:54:22 -0800

My friend's dad has decided he's not worthy of an internet connection. How can my friend get through his dad's Orwellian firewall? Ok, so here's the situation. I have a friend who is a student living with his parents. He doesn't get along with his parents particularly well, and things have come to a head recently. They think that he is spending too much time on his computer, locked away in his room, and not spending enough time with the family. Because of this, they have decided to take an Orwellian view of the Internet they provide him. As of right now, he is not able to get through the firewall through any method but Steam (a fine program, steam chat really has come through for us here.) His browsers will not find anything, and all his 'net games are non functional.

A couple of things to consider; first, he has very few friends, and most of them he only sees online (yes, he plays WoW.) So while he does get out of the house when he can, the majority of his socialization is done online. Second, his grades have not suffered as a result of playing WoW. Third, when his family is together, it seems that all they do is sit around and watch the boob tube, which really isn't his cup of tea.

So, here's the question: How can he get around this overly restrictive firewall? I'm afraid I'm not intimately familiar with the local network infrastructure, and he doesn't have admin rights, obviously. Is there a good solid catch all application that can at least get his browser through? (it would of course be preferable to get all his apps to work again.)

Couple of tidbits. He is running Vista, he is able to connect to the LAN (but nothing outside it) via the wireless network (his dad won't let him have a physical connection), and the way he'll have to pull any applications from the net is by finding a wifi hotspot, so nothing too huge ;).

What is a firewall rule group?

jackypaper — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:27:55 -0800

What is a "firewall rule group"? When recently trying to install an MP3 player on my laptop, I was met with an error message that read "Operation Create Wireless Firewall Rule Group has failed," followed by Microsoft error code 0X80070057. I've searched around but haven't found much info on "rule groups." What is a firewall rule group, and is my wireless router somehow interrupting my hardware installation? Thanks!

Living abroad and can't access Gmail or Facebook - help!

nicoleincanada — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:01:16 -0800

I can search Google, read the news and view most websites, but specific sites like Facebook and Gmail won't load on my Mac Powerbook - I just get page load errors. Any idea what the problem is? I'm a Canadian living in France temporarily, and I've taken my laptop from home with me. While here I'm using a shared internet connection at a school, and although I can do web-searching and such, Gmail and Facebook won't load, in Firefox or Safari (or even the crappy discontinued version of Internet Exporer I just downloaded in the hope that it might work). I suspect the problem is with my computer, since other people using the same network connection are able to access these sites with no problems.

The page load error message suggests I might have a firewall in place, but I've checked the settings and nothing seems to be enabled. That said, I'm not terribly well-versed in this stuff. As well, the local tech support guy gave my computer a thorough once-over and can't figure out the problem.

Any ideas? For what it's worth, I've used both Gmail and Facebook in Canada and elsewhere on this computer with no problems.

best and easy handle FREE Linux based Firewall ?

amomp3 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:47:20 -0800

Wich solution is the best balance between control and easy handle of a FREE Linux based Firewall ? I'm not a noob but not a super expert either...

I'm NOT looking an end user sofware like ZoneAlarm or Kerio.

Some told me Shorewall, others Coyote, others SmoothWall, IPCop ...
I don't know wich one to choose.
I would like to do traffic shapping.

The best would be to collect get real experiences.
Thank You !

Connectivity issues after IP changes

lholladay — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:42:27 -0800

Our office recently changed ISPs, which meant changing our public IPs. Connectivity issues abound. I'm fairly certain the firewall is at fault, but I'm not sure where to go from here. Background:
We changed ISPs. We now have a new /26 subnet. I've updated all internal servers, and the firewall. (Cisco ASA 5510). All internal office PCs are set to use the firewall as their gateway. The firewall then does dynamic NAT on the internal IPs, translating them to a single public IP.

Problem:
Certain websites we host refuse to load. These sites are hosted at Rackspace. Sometimes I'll get a title, sometimes the progress bar goes a little further, but for the most part, the browser just spins. This doesn't happen with the rest of the internet. Just our hosted sites. I can access the sites just fine from home.

Notes:
Serendipitously, I set up a wireless router on the network yesterday. It gives out its own DHCP and has its own separate public IP. Computers using this router do not experience connectivity issues to our hosted sites.

This makes me think the Cisco firewall is at fault, or misconfigured. I'm wondering if it has some old routing tables which need to be cleared. I have tried 'clear xlate', 'clear local-host', and 'clear route'. The problem still persists.

Any firewall experts out there see an obvious thing I'm missing?

SSH through the AS12880 / DCI Iranian government-run firewall?

thewalrus — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:54:42 -0800

Iranian firewallfilter: How to make SSH traffic not resemble SSH traffic, when examined by a deep packet inspection device (Ellacoya, Narus, etc)? Other advice on specific types of VPN from within Iran also welcome. I've been following the news about Iranian Internet censorship for a few years now, but obviously started paying more attention in the last couple of weeks. There's two interesting papers examining AS12880 (DCI)'s Internet transit from Arbor Networks:

Iranian Traffic Engineering

Deeper Look at the Iranian Firewall

Misc:

Robtex page examining AS12880's uplinks to the world

Rense page, strange changes in Iranian Internet transit

What I'm wondering specifically is methods which can be taken to make SSH traffic look -less- like SSH traffic. Assume that a person inside Iran has root on a European-colocated FreeBSD or Linux system (or root on a VPS/Virtual Machine) running the latest OpenSSH. The sshd would of course be listening for incoming connections on a nonstandard port, it could be any port, or multiple different ports. If I remember right OpenSSH now defaults to SSH2/AES but can also use Blowfish. Are there any methods that can be used to disguise the initial SSH handshake and packet headers? Any special tricks from the client software end, assuming that the client (OSX or Linux) can run any ssh client that will compile on it?

Is VPN traffic (Cisco, or Juniper-Netscreen SSL-VPN) less likely to trigger flags or get blocked than SSH?

Does anyone have firsthand or secondhand experience of Windows Remote Desktop / RDP 5.1 being blocked from within Iran?

Is there a "family size" web task/calendar system that'll survive my work's firewall policy?

Lazlo — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:01:34 -0800

My household has suddenly found itself need of a new family-scale web-based planning/organization tool. This is tougher than it might sound as we (well, I) have some pretty twitchy technical requirements, thanks to my work's firewall rules. My wife and I have been happy users of one of the very-low-user-count plans at Backpack for a couple of years, but the moment I've been dreading has finally arrived: I can't use it from work anymore. My employer blocks sites classified by McAfee as "Personal Web Storage", and McAfee has finally figured out that Backpack's file storage features qualify.

I have no problem with my company's firewall rules -- they make sense given the business we're in -- but they seriously complicate picking a replacement. I'm likely to have trouble using any site with personal file-storage features (even just document files -- IIRC Google Docs is blocked, for example), which relies on another site with personal-file-storage features (like Amazon S3, which has storage front-ends like JungleDisk), or which hosts public discussion forums (support forums or "discussion board" features tied to personal sites are probably ok).

We need something that offers multi-user calendar sharing, to-do list management, and general notes-and-clips features, in that order -- anything else is a bonus. Reasonable monthly charges are fine. I want to use it rather than maintain it so self-hosted packages are out. And desktop clients that sync content to the web are ok but they have to run on Windows and they can't be a mandatory component of the solution.

(Having said that, if there's an iPod Touch [not iPhone] app that can sync to a web site but which keeps a local cache so it works well without a live wifi connection, I wouldn't need to access the web interface from work, making all the firewall-related restrictions moot. We might even be able to stick with Backpack under those circumstances -- I know there are a couple of Backpack clients for the Touch, but how well do they really work when you're offline?)

Are we boxed completely into a corner here, or are there still some options available?

Google's services don't work in a specific way

msbrauer — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:30:10 -0800

Why aren't most google services working for me and why do the error pages look identical in firefox, chrome, and IE8? For about a week most google services have stopped working for me. Oddly, I get identical error messages that look like this in all three browsers on my computer (firefox, chrome, and IE8 in Windows Vista) as well as on Mac with Safari in OSX. By identical, I mean that the layout, font, and wording is exactly the same. I am in China, so this may be related to the Great Firewall, but I don't think so. As a comparison, here's an image of the error page I get when trying to view youtube (which is currently blocked in China): firefox, chrome, IE8. While the error is the same in those 3 screenshots, the browsers display them differently.

This behavior happens with all www.google.com/* services that I can remember, but gmail (www.gmail.com redirecting to mail.gmail.com) doesn't exhibit the problem.

tunnel port 80

diode — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:31:20 -0800

I'm accessing the Internet via a public wireless system with most or all ports blocked except port 80, and perhaps port 443. Mainly I want to do some ftp to my website, or perhaps a remote admin session on my home computer. How can I tunnel traffic through port 80? I am working mainly out of a public library for the moment. I've read the terms of use for the free wireless system and it doesn't seem to forbid using port 80 for other types of traffic. I'm not planning on downloading warez or doing bittorrent. I'm thinking there must be a way to tunnel traffic through port 80 for a couple of services I want to use like ftp and vnc. I have logmein setup on both sides but no connection attempt gets through.
I'm running Vista and Ubuntu dual booting on a laptop. I prefer using Ubuntu, but can use Vista if forced to with a hot pitchfork or necessity.
Thanks for any tips.

Hardware question about installing *BSD on old Sun equipment as a SOHO firewall/router.

Myles — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:25:51 -0800

Can someone give me any pointers, tips, or caveats about installing BSD on sun hardware for use as a firewall/router? I've been pondering a while about installing OpenBSD on an old Sun Netra T1. I plan to use it as a firewall/router using pf and maybe squid and Proxy on it. I used to have an old Netra X1 with no CDROM drive, and while memory escapes me, I don't think I had much luck trying to get a different OS on there, as I couldn't even get to the OK prompt, ultimately resorting to "jumper tricks" suggested by some folks. I suppose I'm just doing it for the hell of it, and I know I'm going out of my way for an unorthodox use of a Sun machine, but its really something that's tickled my fancy for a while.

For those who have worked with Sun hardware, what are those config cards for? Any tips or caveats when doing this kind of project? I still plan to have a wireless router that'll merely serve as a wireless ap. I think I can just hang that off a switch.

I've thought about getting something from Soekris Engineering or PC Engines, but last time I looked, getting a used Sun machine on ebay is actually cheaper, so I don't wanna spend too much. :) The Sun Netra PSU is loud though.

Learning about firewalls and general computing

dicetumbler — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:09:46 -0800

I allowed perl access past my firewall (Am I even saying that right?). Should I be worried? And how do I learn more about the subject so I'm not so clueless in the future? I got a popup message on my Macbook about allowing perl access past my firewall (I think). I was downloading and installing Gnucash through Macports at the time, and I figured, must have something to do with the perl program that fetches finance quotes and prices, and I clicked "Allow." Immediately after I wondered if I'd made a mistake, and so I went to the firewall log and saw this:

Jan 8 00:27:40 ***** Firewall[39]: perl is listening from 0.0.0.0:62703 uid = 0 proto=6

(Computer name ***ed out.) I shouldn't be worried, should I?

And now that I'm on the subject, I feel like I need to know more about the basics of computer technology. I get the suspicion that to many people, my above question must sound like one of those questions you come across on lists of ridiculous tech support questions, like where the "any key" is or whether the program "Linux" is supported on XP.

I know perl is a program that people use (usually for network communications? right? right?) and that the 0.0.0.0 ip address probably tells someone who knows better that I have nothing to worry about. (Uh ... right?)

I'm not totally computer-illiterate, and I'm not particularly timid when it comes to messing around (for better or for worse). I've run Ubuntu in the past, and I spent a few days getting wireless to work with my old USB wirless adaptor using ndiswrapper, to give you some background. But ask me what a "driver" is and I couldn't really tell you the details, beyond the fact the fact that you need it to make hardware work. Same with "firewall," "ip address," "perl," "ssh," and so forth.

Like they say, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. I want to learn more about the fundamentals of networking security and computing in general. But how do I go about it? Where do I even start? The superficial approach has got me so far, and at the same time I'm assuming that learning assembly language won't really help me here.

Building a wall inside...

boosh — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:14:32 -0800

Victorian house construction/DIY: building a wall in a shared loft (attic). 'What's this thing?' and 'Am I doing it right?' Our loft (attic) space runs straight through into our neighbour's house and we need to build a dividing wall. We've been trying to get a builder in to do this for years but (unsurprisingly) no-one wants the job, so it's DIY time. According to the local council there are no specific building regulations to comply with beyond creating a barrier that will be fireproof for around an hour. I think we can handle it, but there are a few complicating factors that I'm hoping the hive mind can help out with.

Here's an overall view, looking from our loft to the neighbouring house. The brick pillars are two chimney stacks running up from the lower floors through to the roof. We need to build in three parts: between the pillars and to either side.

Here's a closer view of the centre, and looking up and down. At its highest point this area is 8' tall (250cm), and the area between the pillars is 4' wide (120cm). Looking left and right of the pillars.

The really awkward bits are the roof trusses (Pic1 | Pic2) and especially these deep pits next to the pillars (Pic1 | Pic2). Do these pits serve any purpose, or are they just like that to square off the chimney breasts in the rooms below? They measure 2' on each side, and are about 4' deep.

Our first idea was to put up a stud wall and clad it on both sides with fireproof board, but now we're leaning more towards using these lightweight Thermalite concrete blocks (looks like it would be easier, cheaper and stronger). Assuming that we use the Thermalite blocks, the main questions that we've got are:

1) Should the wall be one or two blocks wide? How do we ensure that the wall is stable, especially in the central area? We would build on top of the existing party wall, which looks like it is two standard house-bricks wide.

2) What do we do about the pits by the chimney stacks? The wall would have to span these pits, although it wouldn't be particularly tall or heavy at that point. How about covering them over with tightly fitting fireproof board? Would it be safe to build on top of that?

3) How do we deal with joining the block-work to the wooden rafters? Should some kind of membrane or compound go between the block and the adjoining rafter? Should they actually be attached in any way?

Any pointers, ideas or online resources very gratefully received.

Last.fm Scrobbler and firewall woes

patricio — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:06:26 -0800

Is there a specific file in which the last.fm scrobbler caches scrobbled music which has not been uploaded? I am stuck behind a corporate firewall at work which prevents the last.fm scrobbler from uploading the tracks I've listened to. I'm not interested in bypassing the firewall at work but instead am wondering if it's possible instead to transfer a file to my home PC so that the cached tracks can be uploaded by the copy of the scrobbler running on that machine. Any thoughts appreciated.

Pleas Please Me

gensubuser — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:24:21 -0800

I need security software that blocks specific programs from using the internet. ZoneAlarm does this well, but it does not do this completely. Help? I've had good luck with ZoneAlarm over the past 5 years--it does pretty much what I want. No, Word, you don't get to use the internet. Sorry, Adobe Update, no phoning home. Unfortunately, there are some scraps remaining:

The other day I caught a program using some Windows Help .exe to grab its html help files from the web. It sounded pretty innocuous, but could used to sinister ends. Then, there are the "Windows Generic Host processes" -- you can't really lock them down (with ZA) without paying a huge price, because nothing really works then.

So, I want software that runs programs inside a web-less sandbox. I may end up having to run a VM with file-only access, but I'd rather not--that's kinda slow, and not very seamless. If there were software that viciously scalpeled all web dlls from the offending program, that'd be okay too. But I need to know that this software isn't phoning home. I don't give IE permission to use the net until I have to use it, because I have a suspicion some programs show up as IE in ZA.

99% of the programs out there talk about "stopping spyware before it's even installed" or removing it once it's been identified. I don't want that--I'm paranoid, what are my options?

Where's the best place to host a .cn version of a website?

Hartster — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:55:49 -0800

Where's the best place for us to host the .cn version of our website? We'll be opening up a distribution branch in China soon, so we'll be getting (parts of) our example.com site translated and setting up a small (10 page) example.cn site.

What's the best/easiest way of us hosting example.cn. It'll only be a basic site, but we'll need PHP and MySQL. I guess the choices are

1) Host it on our (US-based) dedicated server
2) Host it on a US/European virtual server that would (somehow) be better for the purpose than our dedicated server
3) Host it on a Chinese server

If we went with 1) how bad would speed and accesibility be through the Great Firewall? The content is 100% innocuous, so as a dedicated server with similarly innocuous sites on, would be pretty much fine for accessibility?

If we went with 3) how easy would it be to get set up (and move in the case of difficulties etc)? Any specific recommendations for Chinese hosting companies would be much appreciated.

Note: from a webdev point of view nobody involved would speak any chinese.

Understanding throughput..the right way..

hboogz — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 06:57:04 -0800

Firewall and VPN throughput: Please help me understand the real world difference ? I'm working on examining different firewall's to replace an existing Nokia IP 380.

I see different throughput numbers being thrown around by different vendors and it gets rather confusing for me.

Take for example, a FW throughput as advertised at 1 Gbps and VPN throughput as advertised at 600 Mbps.

I only have 1 firewall and about 50 IPSEC VPNs; personally,it doesn't make sense to buy a firewall that can handle such throughput if the line coming into my office is just 1.5 Mbps ?

All VPN's at the site have T1's and the main site has a T1, so what's the point of getting a firewall that encrypts/decrypts traffic at 600 Mbps ?

And VPN throughput is combined into the overall FW throughput ?

I took a look at the device utilization of the firewall between yesterday and today and got this -- i'm really uncertain how to analyze that and correctly size the new FW ?

On average i believe the current FW is running about 40 Mbps..

I know i'm not understanding something correctly, so please someone please school me...

recycled PCs as m0n0wall WAN/VPN routers - worth messing with?

bartleby — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:33:42 -0800

ITfilter: Thinking about a new firewall/WAN VPN router - should I bother trying to roll my own with m0n0wall? Thinking about a project to put in hardware firewalls for 3 up-til-now independent sites who don't want to consolidate but need to start having secure WAN tunnels between, with some traffic monitoring tools for "okay, which one of you is killing our bandwidth" days, port blocking, etc.

I'm sure we've got some old workstations that can be recycled into m0n0wall boxes, but no so sure it's worth the time & hassle to do myself vs. buying commercial equipment. Boss likes cheap; I like free time and minimal stress migraines.

Note: I'm sometimes clever, but I've got no freeBSD or router hacking experience to build on. Going in cold.

Anyone had experiences with m0n0wall they'd care to share?

Wall of confusion

southof40 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:53:28 -0800

Safely use someone elses ADSL connection ? I'm a long way from home and I need to hook my PC up to my hosts ADSL connection.

They have an ADSL modem (D-LINK DSL-302G) but no other hardware protection (and with NAT disabled on the modem currently).

I have a Windows XP SP2 machine using Windows firewall (I also have in my bag a WRT54G Linksys router).

I don't want to mess with my hosts setup and I don't have a manual for the WRT54G (I've tried various things with the 54G and failed to connect)

What's the safest way for me to make use of their modem ? My current ideas range from :

* plug in directly to ADSL - hope Windows firewall can handle it
* go and buy replacement ADSL modem but with built in firewall (not easy long way from shops)
* install some extra layer of software firewall

All suggestions welcome

500 MHZ PIII + FreeNAS + OpenVPN + m0n0wall = love?

pegstar — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:17:10 -0800

My girlfriend has expanded her theater management business, hired some employees, and wants to have a file server, have a firewall, and have remote access to the office network. Can I do all this with a Dell PowerEdge 500Mhz PIII? If so.. So I'm thinking to install FreeNAS and add m0n0wall and OpenVPN.

The server has:
- 4 17.5 GB 10,000 RPM SCSI discs
- one 8.5GB IDE drive
- an Adaptec AHA-2940U2W SCSI card
- 2 wired NIC's, one is 10/100/1000 Mbps and the other is 10/100Mbps
- 256MB of PC100 ECC RAM

There are 5 full time users of the network who run:
- one running Windows 2000 on a desktop and XP on a laptop
- one running on an Apple laptop
- one running an XP desktop and an Apple laptop
- two running an XP desktop and XP laptop

There are 2 printers that connect directly to the network. I have some switches and a wireless router I'll run behind this thing. They do most of ther work in MS Office & Outlook.

I'll install the OS on the 8.5 GB IDE drive, I'll use the SCSI discs in a RAID 1+0, i guess and use the gigabit card as the WAN interface and the slower card as the LAN interface.

I've never done anything like this before. This is what i've worked out to do, but please let me know what else to consider and where to revise.

Additionally, how do I limit some of her employees access to some of the files through a policy rather than a file by file chmod or whatever? Also, should I get more RAM?

XP Filter: I set up a non admin account for safer computing -- Am I safe enough now?

dancestoblue — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:06:12 -0800

I've read so much here lately 1 2 3 about not browsing as an admin, decided to check it out and yepper, I surely was using an admin account. I've set up a non admin account, made a few other changes (described inside), hoping to find out from The Hive Mind if I am now safe enough to breathe easy(er). Ya'll put the fear of computer death into me, I finally decided to check and yeah, I was doing it wrong wrong wrong. So I set about trying to get my mind (and puter) right in the eyes of The Hive Mind.

I set up an account without Admin rights, and will use this for most everything from now on.

I left both accounts without passwords because of reading this post -- is this a good plan, or is this guy off the wall?

I am using a fairly fresh XP install (maybe two months) and I'm pretty sure I'm still clean -- I've run Spybot and AdAware, updated as needed, maybe every couple weeks.

I'm using AVG Anti-Virus Free and update it as it says it's needed.

I'm using the ZoneAlarm free firewall -- I LOVE that it allows me to determine when software decides to 'call home' and I get to decide -- Apple is pretty determined with this, I've found, and so is Open Office, a few others.

I've got Windows Auto Update turned on but not to auto download and install -- I want it to prompt me and let me decide if and when.

I'm using MS Windows Defender and upgrading as it suggests.

I'm using Firefox 3 upgraded automatically any time they suggest, and running AdBlock Plus and NoScript, updated when suggested.

If any site gives me problems in Firefox, I first try Opera (updated as needed) and then IE7, last resort. I run IE Tab through Firefox rather than firing up IE7, and I only use it on sites that demand IE7 (NetFlix, Sprint, a couple of others) -- I'm hoping this helps me but I don't actually know if it adds safety or not. I update IE7 as Windows Update suggests, pretty sure I'm always current.

I'm using Foxit PDF rather than Adope bloatware.

"Aye" suggested Disabliing all AutoRun and AutoPlay options with TweakUI (a Microsoft PowerToy) is this needed/wanted?

What have I missed? Where have I gone overboard? I want safety but don't want to live locked down so hard I cannot move.

Thanx in advance.

Peace.

dancestoblue

Can I edit my Akismet plugin?

harriet vane — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:08:22 -0800

Can I edit the Akismet plugin I use on my Wordpress blog? My host has a firewall which is preventing my Akismet plugin from working properly. They offered me a proxy address and number I can use instead, but I don't know how to get the plugin to use them. (Alternatively, can you recommend a good comment-spam catcher that won't run into firewall problems?) I've asked the Akismet people for help with this, but they say they don't provide that level of service.

I've never modified a plug-in before, but would be happy to get my hands dirty if given clear instructions.

My previous host had no problems with it (just terrible customer service). I was really happy with how well Akismet worked, so I'd prefer to keep it going if possible.

Help me securely share folders across different networks

special-k — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:04:46 -0800

Help me share a folder across the internet without compromising my firewall I have a desktop at work with multiple hard drives and a large amount of data. Lately I have been working at several remote research sites and find the need to grab files from the desktop. So I shared some folders and restricted access to my username. The desktop has a static IP so the share works like so

\\ip.add.re.ss\share_name

so far so good. Zone alarm [on the desktop], however, denies access when I am on a different network. I've talked to the IT admins at a few of my research sites and entered those IP ranges into my trusted zone but it would be impossible for me to cover every single site (and the occasional coffee shop in the middle of nowhere). What can I do to get around this?

Sharing works perfectly when zone alarm is turned off. I could, for example, enter 1.1.1.1 to 255.255.255.255 as a trusted range but that would defeat the purpose of having the firewall. I'm stumped.

Both computers run XP

My company's firewall is blocking my website. Is there anything I can do on my end to fix this?

Anonymous — Tue, 20 May 2008 07:29:34 -0800

My company's firewall is blocking my website. Is there anything I can do on my end to fix this? (Be kind, I am a website newb.) Up until last week, I had no problems accessing my website or its cPanel admin from work. Now I just get a timed out error even when I just try to load the page (or something of that effect--can't remember the exact wording.)

My work is pretty laid back about web surfing during breaks/lunch, etc., and I have never had any problems accessing any other sites (flickr, myspace, youtube) so what could possibly be so bad about my site that they would block it? It's just a simple online portfolio.

My hosting company says that it is because the firewall is blocking the port the cPanel is on and apparently a lot of companies view it as an insecure port? They said the only thing I could do is request that my company allow it.

I don't really want to go that far just to access a personal website from work (I mean, I do have real work to be doing :) but I guess my bigger concern is that if our firewall is blocking it, how many others are as well? I didn't even realize that the reason I couldn't access it was because of the firewall, I just thought the server was down or something. If other people experience the same thing, might they just think I have an unreliable site?

Are there any changes I should make to make it more firewall-friendly? Sorry if these are totally dumb questions, but I am totally new at this website stuff.

Yoggie Pico

chuckdarwin — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:14:37 -0800

Will this cute little firewall device work well with a small Server 2003 domain setup? Found via the always-fun Gadget Show.