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Port Scanners

Here's the situation. My sister has had problems with her web browsing, and other services, running much slower lately. While over at her house, I decided to check the NetGear FR314 router I had given them years back.

When I tried getting to the web based config using the password I had setup, I couldn't. But the factory default "password" worked just fine. It seems that the box has been reset to factory defaults.

Since her son is completely unsupervised on his own computer in the basement (which is also where the cable modem and Netgear box reside), and has an Apache web server loaded, my sister is suspicious about what he has been up to. He says the Apache software is required for some game he plays. I'm not a gamer, so I don't know. But since the Apache screen that comes up after entering his IP in IE is the installation default, I don't suspect that he is running a full web server or anything.

He has added Bittorrent forwarding to the router, which is no big deal. But he has also forwarded several ports with the label "recruit" which I don't recognize.

The question is, are there any good/recommended port scanners that I can use to scan her public IP and find out what ports may be opened and forwarded to his computer?

Is there any way to disable the resetting of the Netgear box to the factory defaults? I realize that is something that can result in shooting yourself in the foot. But perhaps I can take apart the box and disable the reset button in such a way that I can easily re enable it when I need to.

No doubt I would then need to get some of that tape that will show evidence of tampering if he figures out that he can open the box and reset it. Or maybe just place such a piece of tape over the reset hole.

The fear is that this kid is young and extremely gullible. My sister has had to change her phone number several times because the kid hands out his phone number, real name, and home address all the time over the net.

Hopefully not related, but the log on the NetGear box showed thousands of outgoing hits to gay web sites. She wouldn't be devastated to find out that the kid is gay, but with the world we live in and all the pedophiles out there, she is concerned about him offering his personal information freely.

Yeah, I know, she should just supervise him more or just take away the computer altogether. I can't fathom why she doesn't, but she doesn't want the hassle of him complaining. So I am just trying to find out what may be going on and, at the very least, protect her computer from hack attempts brought about by his fiddling with the router.

Unfortunately, a software firewall on her system is too much of a hassle for her also. I've tried to tell her nicely that the avoidance of too many "hassles" can spell disaster.

Reply to
Spender
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What are you talking about? You are able to access the Admin screen of the router and you should be able to see that information on the router's admin screen if ports are being forwarded on the router. to an LAN IP. You just said in a sentence above that you see what ports are being forwarded.

You're going to far with this.

Sounds like the kid needs a good talking to by you and his mother.

It's called Tough Love and maybe she should implement it.

Install a personal FW on her machine and you configure it so that it blocks all LAN IP(s) or disable MS File and Print Sharing and Client for MS on the NIC and the machine won't be able to network.

I think you can get another cheap $50 NAT router and just segment or separate the two networks. Her network separated from his, using the NetGear as the gateway. I have never done it but I know it can be done.

Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

That's a cheap easy way to protect her PC from whatever "stuff" he gets on his. Just don't forward anything in.

It probably won't help with the browse speed issues you mentioned, unless they're caused by malware on her PC which you could then clean up once she's in her own zone.

-Russ.

Reply to
Somebody.

You can use nmap.

This you cannot scan.

Perhaps talking to the "kid" would be a good idea for the first step.

Yours, VB.

Reply to
Volker Birk

Low end Netgear routers (and D-link's) are notorious for doing exactly this. Everything is working fine and then they randomly reset back to factory defaults. cheers, E.

Reply to
E.

If the kid is running bittorrent, then that could be your issue. If your not throttling the bittorrent traffic, it could be saturating the pipe altogether. My suggestion is take an old P3 you have laying around, triple NIC it, and create a two zone arch. I know this might seem like over kill, but the really nice thing about this is that you can rate limit the bittorrent traffic using IPTABLES. He'll still be able to share, but not be able to kill the pipe.

-KJ

Reply to
kevin

Yes, if I happen to be sitting in my sisters basement at the time (this NetGear model offers no remote admin facility.) I'm speaking of scanning remotely, to see if he has reset the box again and set up port forwarding.

Reply to
Spender

Her system is clean, as best as we can tell with Norton AV and SpyBot S&D.

Reply to
Spender

Actually you can. If a service on his system responds, you have your answer.

Ever try talking to a teenager? Not easy. And frankly it's even harder since my sister just doesn't take the upper hand with the kid. Pity.

Reply to
Spender

I've never seen that happen before with any of the NetGear boxes I've worked with. It seems especially unlike in this case since the port forwarding fields were populated with things I had put in there. They would be empty if the box had simply reset itself.

Reply to
Spender

The problem with bitorrent is often the number of sessions rather than the actual bandwidth -- it opens a ton of them and some low end border devices can get swamped. If the session table is full new sessions have to wait for a free session handle and many entry level boxes don't behave well when loaded like that. There are (excellent) bittorrent clients out there that allow you to limit the number of sessions, perhaps her son would be willing to use one of those, they don't download any slower in the end.

-Russ.

Reply to
Somebody.

If the kid won't act right and his mother will not take the necessary steps, then you have a no win situation.

Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

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