I have 3 questions for you here

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November 16th, 2001, 12:04 AM
Livlee

I have 3 questions for you here

1. Port Scanners? I'm not 100% sure what their all about. I've been reading some stuff on download.com about 'em and I can't quite figure what their use is? I've seen one or two that scans a network for open ports and gives you the computers workgruop name etc. In't that illigal?

2. I've got an app called Commview which is a packet sniffer. And I wanna know how to decode the packets? Sent from my PC out over the network just see what sort of information I'm giving out.

3. You know the quick launch pannel next to the start menu? Well, I tryed to get rid of I.E 6 a few weeks ago and I trashed some files and so I rebooted my computer, then when WIN started back up I lost all my short cuts from the quick launch bar and I can't put anthing back there coz it won't let me. I've copyed a few files from my WIN 98 CD across to my system but still no joy. :( Any suggestion?

cheers

Livlee
November 16th, 2001, 05:01 AM
Tedob1

port scanners are kinda like guns when you make them illegal only the criminals will have them. You need them to see what those who would break into your system see so any breaches in securty can be closed. They show what ports are running active services.

packet sniffers ...maybe someone should do a tutorial on them.

Try running the system file checker by typing sfc in the run command box, if that dosn't help re-install your os over the top of the existing one. you shouldn't loose anything and i think it will help.
May 9th, 2003, 07:20 AM
antisecurityboy

port scanners are mainly used to scan (check) the ports and report on what is coming in going out. this can help if there are any requests that are not welcomed (Some1 out there trying to access your computer for example). It will also give you a report on what services are running on your ports.

Packet sniffers are used as the name suggests to SNIFF the packets sentover the network. how to decode depends on how it was coded.

About the quick launch pannel, i think you should try to reinstall the Internet Explorer on your machine.

Cheers
May 9th, 2003, 12:10 PM
SirDice

Re: I have 3 questions for you here

Quote:

Originally posted here by Livlee
1. Port Scanners? I'm not 100% sure what their all about. I've been reading some stuff on download.com about 'em and I can't quite figure what their use is? I've seen one or two that scans a network for open ports and gives you the computers workgruop name etc. In't that illigal?

Portscanning is not (yet) illegal. It's like going into a street and checking if every door is open or not. The street is your server/network and the doors are the ports.

Quote:

2. I've got an app called Commview which is a packet sniffer. And I wanna know how to decode the packets? Sent from my PC out over the network just see what sort of information I'm giving out.

Basicly this means you need to learn about network protocols. Start by buying a good book about TCP/IP. I can recommend TCP/IP Illustrated by Richard Stevens.

Quote:

3. You know the quick launch pannel next to the start menu? Well, I tryed to get rid of I.E 6 a few weeks ago and I trashed some files and so I rebooted my computer, then when WIN started back up I lost all my short cuts from the quick launch bar and I can't put anthing back there coz it won't let me. I've copyed a few files from my WIN 98 CD across to my system but still no joy. :( Any suggestion?

I really have no idea. IE is so tightly integrated with windows it will be a b***h to completely remove it.
May 9th, 2003, 12:22 PM
smirc

Quote:

1. Port Scanners? I'm not 100% sure what their all about. I've been reading some stuff on download.com about 'em and I can't quite figure what their use is? I've seen one or two that scans a network for open ports and gives you the computers workgruop name etc. In't that illigal?

A port scanner is essentially a program that probes a number of TCP/UDP ports on a machine to see if it's possible to connect. A connection idicates a service/deamon is running on that port.

Quote:

2. I've got an app called Commview which is a packet sniffer. And I wanna know how to decode the packets? Sent from my PC out over the network just see what sort of information I'm giving out.

Get Ethereal. It's works for Windows/*nix, has a nice GUI and does all the decoding for you. It has neat features that make it easy to trace different "conversations" between different protocols. Ethereal use winpcap which is based on the *nix tcpdump and it supports just about every protocol you could want to sniff. Really useful for debug network problems. And it's Open Source.

Quote:

3. You know the quick launch pannel next to the start menu? Well, I tryed to get rid of I.E 6 a few weeks ago and I trashed some files and so I rebooted my computer, then when WIN started back up I lost all my short cuts from the quick launch bar and I can't put anthing back there coz it won't let me. I've copyed a few files from my WIN 98 CD across to my system but still no joy. Any suggestion?

http://www.litepc.com/. It lets you remove IE and it's free.
May 9th, 2003, 03:08 PM
Xeron

In relation to #1, once you have used a port scanner to scan your ports, what type of action can be taken, to e.g. block or close the port? Anything other than the use of a firewall
May 9th, 2003, 03:23 PM
SirDice

Quote:

Originally posted here by Xeron
In relation to #1, once you have used a port scanner to scan your ports, what type of action can be taken, to e.g. block or close the port? Anything other than the use of a firewall

Find out what the service is that runs on that particular port. If you do not need that service shut it down. That should close that port.

An example is port 80. A webserver is usually a service that runs on port 80. If you do not need it, remove or disable the webserver.
May 9th, 2003, 06:02 PM
doc crontab

"1. Port Scanners? I'm not 100% sure what their all about. I've been reading some stuff
on download.com scans a network for open ports and gives you the computers
workgruop name etc. Isn't that illigal?"

Port Scanning is not illegal there have been past cases where someone accidently
scanned a network or a server by mistake Vc3 vs Scott Moulton and the Judge threw
the case out. To use a port scanner you need your ISP's permisson and you need
tell them when your scanning and again you have to be very careful not to aim it at anyones network or system. Of course to discover a workgroup name or other information about a particular system portscanning isn't the only way suppose someone stupidly leaves fingerd enabled on his/her system? if a Hacker sends
a request for this information with his finger client the fingerd server will send
him/her back information about the shell, directories, office phone number,
user names :( not good.
May 11th, 2003, 08:52 PM
mindfuck

1) Portscans are mainly used to determine the level of security on a network, where more open ports is lower security. Portscanning can be illiegal depending on the country you're in. I've even got threatened by my ISP here in Canada because of it.

2) AnalogX has a good packet sniffer that auto decodes the packets.. www.analogx.com

3) No comment.