Is it legel to ping?

[naviaulakh]

Just a stupid question to all. Is it legel to ping many hosts using Angry IP scanner and finding open ports.

[XTC46]

As far as I know port scanning is not illegal, neither is pinging. HOWEVER what you do with the information usually will be, becasue thereis no reason you need to know about any open ports on a random persons computer, also continuous portscans or pings in an excessive amount can casue negative effectson the targets net connection and then they could probably make a case against you for harassment or something fun like that.

So basicly the act it self is not illegal but the out come of it could be. Sort of like firing a gun is not illegal, but when the bullet hits a person it is.

[(V)/\><]

if you read your ISPs TOS you'll probably find out that doing such a thing violates your TOS and is liable to get you fecked off your ISP. if they find you doing it. most likely, someone will complain about you.

by itself, pinging shouldn't be illegal in your country, unless you are living in china perhaps. the ping is only a part of the ICMP.

if you are checking for open ports however, that's not an ICMP echo that you are sending. most likely you are sending TCP SYN packets. again, those packets are not even part of the ICMP so they are definately not a ping.

and once again, looking for open ports on computers that don't belong to you is probably not illegal in your country but is probably a violation of your ISPs TOS.

and why are you "pinging" computers that you don't own, looking for open ports? what will you do when you find open ports on a computer? and do you think that is legal?

[(V)/\><]

Argh, XTC46 you got there before me.

i just want to add, or expand on this

also continuous portscans or pings in an excessive amount can casue negative effectson the targets net connection

causing such a negatice effect could be viewed as a Denial/Degredation of Service type attack. and last time i checked, that was illegal!

[naviaulakh]

Thanks for your replies, you intelligent buddies....

and for

and why are you "pinging" computers that you don't own, looking for open ports? what will you do when you find open ports on a computer? and do you think that is legal?

I am a totally newbie to computer security and networking. I just want to see how the open ports look like and regarding the legality of this.... by the way thats my question

anyway thanks for your replies.

Cheers

[XTC46]

you just want to see what open ports look like? wtf? they look like text on a screen that says its open or closed. its not like in the movies where there is some cool graphic or something. my guess is you have some lame as tool that you want to try run on an open port so you can say you are "1337" or whatever. loser...

[rowdy_yates]

Originally posted here by naviaulakh
I just want to see how the open ports look like

Hi. Here is what open ports look like.



Also, a ping does not tell you open port. It just tells you a host is up and responding to ICMP.

[gess~da~devil]

Thanks for those negetive APs.. I just love those red gifs

[gess~da~devil]

Can somebody give that guy more reds...

[MoonWolf]

Originally posted here by gess~da~devil
Thanks for those negetive APs.. I just love those red gifs

Hmm I dont see a good reason for negging op. Okay you COULD find a malicous intent in his
wording if you look hard enough.

Besides. Before I had any experience with networking the whole ping/portscanning thing seemed really cool and complicated. NMAP was like some super uber cool tool (well it still is only in a different way)

Let him have some fun now that he knows what he wants to do won't get him in jail.