Closing open ports manually in XP

[xenestra]

Good evening to all those monitoring tonight.

As a new user to the Windows operating system, I was wondering if it was possible to manually close or stealth the open ports of my computer? For example, ports 25, 110, 135, 1025.

I am running the Home version of Windows XP and using ZoneAlarm as my firewall.

Will I need a downloaded program - or is it possible to close ports using some aspect of Windows XP?

Any reply, even if it is just a 'welcome to the site' - would be most welcome.

Kindest regards


xenestra.

 

[chastity]

Well welcome to XP-erience. As to your question I don't know the answer but I'm sure somebody around here does.

 

[War Priest]

Your firewall, if its good, should hide your ports and/or also let you know what to do to hide your ports.

Besides that, just do a search for a program that hides your ports which is basically what your firewall is suppose to do.

I know alot of people cant stand NIS( norton internet security ). But I have tested Zonealarm, sygate, Tiny and Black defender and NIS has done the best including support for making changes to default settings.

Apples to Apples NIS 2002 is great.
Just as an example, cnet ran a test putting Zonealarm settings at its highest and leaving NIS in default then claims Zonealarm is the better. WHAT?? Its like having a rigged test!

AND THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE THAT DONT MAKE THAT CONNECTION IS ASTOUNDING (sp).

There are my 2 cents worth..
PS>>Norton will also close and monitor un_used ports..great great feature..

 

[oDin]

ports are closed by default. unless there is a sepecific service running that is listening for a connection on a certain port. to see a list of all your current open ports open a DOS window and type netstat -an. click here for more info on what services you can safely disable, which will close ports. also, as War Priest said if you have a good firewall you don't really need to worry about open ports. the whole point of a firewall is to block access to your ports.

oDin.

 

[amphrodite]

If you are paranoid like me..
since you have ZA installed..

there are option in the packet traffic to open or close ports