Hi everyone, could someone please help me clean up my ports. And also help me understand between a hardware and software router:
In the past (Win7) I ran the Comodo firewall (with help from Chiron's guide), and before that Zone Alarm firewall, whenever I'd visited GRC Shields Up my ports always tested as 'stealth' . Recently with my new laptop and Win8.1 I decided to stick with Windows own firewall, together with Binisoft WFC. I recently visited https://www.grc.com/shieldsup and after clicking on the Common Ports test, was horrified to see my machine 'failed' instantly. I then ran the 'All Service Ports' test, to discover all ports showing as 'closed', with ports 53 and 1022 as 'open'.
The reason I stopped using a 3rd party firewall was because on Win7, once or twice I was in the control panel and saw that both firewalls were running, both Comodo and Windows own built-in, which I couldn't explain. Additionally, when booting up, the Comodo IS taskbar icon was often the last icon to show itself, resulting in wavering my confidence.
Could you please also explain what a testing site like GRC actually tests. Logically I would have thought it would test the 'hardware firewall', the firewall in my router, as that must be the one that any traffic first comes up against. I imagine is as two firewalls in series, so any firewall testing site must surely be testing the first one, and not he firewall on my laptop.
Many thanks in advance for any and all replies, Chigwells.
Edit: I am using the standard router supplied by my isp, the Huawei HG533 .
In the past (Win7) I ran the Comodo firewall (with help from Chiron's guide), and before that Zone Alarm firewall, whenever I'd visited GRC Shields Up my ports always tested as 'stealth' . Recently with my new laptop and Win8.1 I decided to stick with Windows own firewall, together with Binisoft WFC. I recently visited https://www.grc.com/shieldsup and after clicking on the Common Ports test, was horrified to see my machine 'failed' instantly. I then ran the 'All Service Ports' test, to discover all ports showing as 'closed', with ports 53 and 1022 as 'open'.
The reason I stopped using a 3rd party firewall was because on Win7, once or twice I was in the control panel and saw that both firewalls were running, both Comodo and Windows own built-in, which I couldn't explain. Additionally, when booting up, the Comodo IS taskbar icon was often the last icon to show itself, resulting in wavering my confidence.
Could you please also explain what a testing site like GRC actually tests. Logically I would have thought it would test the 'hardware firewall', the firewall in my router, as that must be the one that any traffic first comes up against. I imagine is as two firewalls in series, so any firewall testing site must surely be testing the first one, and not he firewall on my laptop.
Many thanks in advance for any and all replies, Chigwells.
Edit: I am using the standard router supplied by my isp, the Huawei HG533 .
Last edited:
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Win 8.1 Pro x64
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- Lenovo ThinkPad T440s
- CPU
- Intel Core i7 4600U 2.1GHz Haswell ULT
- Motherboard
- Lenovo 20AQ0069UK (CPU Socket - U3E1)
- Memory
- 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz
- Graphics Card(s)
- Intel HD Graphics Family
- Screen Resolution
- 1900x1080
- Hard Drives
- ssd 250gb
- Browser
- Firefox, Chromodo
- Antivirus
- Panda Free
- Other Info
- Windows firewall, Windows Firewall Control, MBAE, Emsi Emergency Scanner