Rules to block Filesharing sites???

It's just a simple home network. I have a Linksys WCG200.

It wouldn't take much to fool my kids, I imagine. I just don't want to get a call from someone telling me that my daughter has downloaded

26,544 mp3's, and I'M BEING SUED!!

Thanks for any help!

-Bob

That depends entirely on the firewall.

Do note that a really savvy user will (almost) always be able to bypass your firewall. And check incoming e-mail and so on...

Joachim

Well, the major problem is when you allow others to download off you, that is when the RIAA has you where than want you. If you turn off shating, you can download without getting in trouble with the RIAA, but then you have the problem of "Participation Level". Its their way of enforcing an upload/download ratio. When it reaches zero, you cannot download anymore. This can be circumvented easily, but if you let you daughter do that, you not out of the woods 100 percent, because you have to worry about Kazaa. Kazaa will go after people who use clients like the old Kazaa++ which evade the "partipipation level", and let you download without turning on sharing. You can use open Socks proxies to keep Kazaa from tracing where the "unauthorized" clietns are coming from, but the problem there is that it might take an hour to download one song.

Another problem is that with filesharing sites, they do port hopping,and when all else fails, use port 80. They makers of filssharing software are very crafty. A setup like my home network has (and what my obervatory will have, if and when I ever get to open it someday) is the only sure fire way to shut down filesharing sites. The real problem is port 80. If you block it, then you cannot get out on the web, if you dont block it, they Kazaa or Grokster will connect to that after about 1/2 hour. I find that with all other ports blocked, Kazaa will take abour 1/2 hour to exhaust ports 1000 through 5300, before finally trying port 80. You might have to get another PC, and use that as the router. Put AllegroSurf for routing to the other machines, and Tiny Personal Firewall for filtering.

I've got all the sites I can think of blocked. kaaza.com, kaaza.net, limewire.com, etc...

I've been doing that, as well as asking in various newgroups...

;-)

LOL!!

That's a good one!!

I called them to ask how to add a 'user name' to the login screen.

The nice Indian girl insisted on telling me how to change the password, even though I CLEARLY told her that I had already done that.

She then proceeded to tell me that you can't put in a 'user name'. When I asked her why there was a 'user name' field on the login screen, I seemed to have thrown her off her script....

I'll pass on the 'Tech Support.' Thanks all the same...

-Bob

The Letter 'F' wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.comcast.giganews.com:

The WCG200 has IP Filtering according to the user manual. You should be able to filter Internet traffic to LAN side IP/Machines by Port number, TCP, UDP or both TCP/UDP. The unit also has Website blocking too with a

*Blocked Site List*.

It's a matter of knowing what inbound ports are being used by each p2p software and setting rules to block traffic on the LAN side/IP (s)/machines behind the router. You can find out what port's are being used by each P2P software by using Google. As for the Blocked Site List that going to be by url or IP as I don't know and not used it on the Linksys units.

The Linksys unit seems to be feature rich and one would think the unit has logging abilities. If it does have a logging feature, then enable it a use a log viewer like Kiwi Syslog Daemon (free) to view inbound and outbound to the WCG200 so you can see what LAN side IP/machines are connecting to what remote IP(s).

If you don't know how to use the unit, then you should get on the phone with Linksys Tech support.

Duane :)

On the other hand, I talked with Tech Support personnel at Linksys when I was using a Linksys, who were out of India mind you, they were right on the money and I was asking more technical questions than about a user-id. ;-)

Duane :)

Just tell your daughter that you'll have to sell her into white slavery to pay the legal bills if she downloads stuff to which she has no rights.

Why is your home network trying to access these filesharing sites?

Why did you install Kazaa on your home network (never mind why you might install it at your "obervatory"), and then decide to block it at the firewall?

Surely it would be more sensible to not install the problem first, than to install it, and then go through the extra work of blocking it. Or is this something the Software Fairy installed without your knowledge or permission - how did it get past your "filters" in the first place?

Also, ports 1000 through 5300 is 4300 ports - a half hour is 1800 seconds - thats about 2.4 connection attempts per second. Is your firewall so b0rken that it doesn't notice this? Is the kl0wn who monitors the firewall so brain-dead that this is considered "normal"? You really shouldn't be connecting computers to the Internet if that's the case.

No - a better solution is to learn to use the computers you already have.

Old guy

I only access occasionally to see what ports need blocking, though I have not done it in a while, because the way that Kazaa works now, You have download on program, then run that and have that download off the Net. If you want to be sure that your network is blocking sites properly, you do need to occasioanlly run Kazaa, and see what ports need blocking.

For testing purposes. I occasionally run it, to see what ports need blocking. If you want to be sure that Kazaa is blocked, and there is no ports that it might find, you do need to run the latest version every now and then. Start it and wait about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, to see what ports it tries. They people that write the software are very crafty, and anyone runnign a network needs to keep up with what they are doing. If you have not done this in a while, you should run it, and see what ports it tries to use. About a year ago, I had to expand the range of blocked ports all the way up to 5300. These people are getting more crafty all the time

You don't have kids, do you???

-Bob

X-No-Archive: Yes

However, my setup solves that problem. For ports 80, and 1000 to 5300, the Socks proxy is denied access, but the HTTP proxy is allowed to use port 80. This is what makes Tiny Personal Firewall running on a NAT box to be SUPERIOR to any hardware appliance. Becuase it can block by application, I can deny the Socks proxy access to those ports while allowing other applications to use those, if necessary. Your system might not be as Kazaa-proof as you might think. You really need to download and run Kazaa, and see if your network really blocks Kazaa, or just delays it. You might be surprised by the results. The people that write Kazaa are pretty crafty, and if you are serious about blocking it, you need to keep up with what they are doing. While it is true, that on a hardware appliance, you would block legitimate applications on those ports, Tiny Personal Firewall is much more selective at this. By telling it only to deny the Socks server access to those ports, but allow anything else to use them, I can cut off Kazaa, without cutting off anything else. This is why I advocate the use of software-based firewall programs, instead of hardware appliances. They are much more flexible than any hardware device. AllegroSurf runs the Socks proxy while WebWasher does HTTP. I just tell Tiny to not allow AllegroSurf outgoing access to ports 80, and 1000-5300, 6346-6352, and

6667-7000. That cuts off Kazaa, Grokster and Gnutella, as well as IRC and all IM services, while still permitting anything else that needs to use those ports. Becuase such programs cannot get out without using the Socks server, it is quite easy to shut down without eliminating anything else. AllegroSurf handles routing and Socks proxy chores. Web Washer 3.0 handles HTTP proxy, pop-up blocking, web filtering, ad-blocking, and cookie-crushing. Avast handles the anti-virus duties, SpamBam elminates spam, Tiny Personal Firewall acts as the network firewall, and NewsProxy does Usenet filtering.

X-No-Archive: Yes

But as long as anything is allowed, even through a proxy, some programs will find a way to get through. That is what Kazaa does. It supports proxy servers, so you need to restrict where your Socks proxy can go. This is why I say to REALLY find out whether or not Kazaa is completely shut down, you need to run the application from one of your network machines, and through your proxies as well, to see what ports need to be secured. The people that write Kazaa are very crafty and very sneaky, and you need to keep up with what they are doing.

Anything not explicitly permitted is implicitly denied.

The above is a fundamental security principle. Why would one care which ports Kazaa, or anything else not permitted, uses?

Sad thing is that there are valid applications for business that use ports under 5300 that your limited scope of understanding would eliminate.

So are you just speaking about what you know about this from some limited usage of your solution or have you done this with a FW appliance too and know that Tiny a (PFW) is superior to anything else on the market in stopping traffic? So what about stopping the p2p traffic by their IP(s) or do the P2p(s) have 5,000 IP(s) they can switch to? I briefly installed Kazza and saw the nitemare and removed it out of the gate from my machine.

Is your whole world centered around Tiny and Kazza. Everytime you post, it's about Tiny and Kazza this and Kazza and Tiny that. Now you have added this proxy of yours into the mix. It really is ridiculous that you keep doing it. Why you keep running this Kazaa thing into the ground with Tiny is unbelievable.

Duane :)

I just want to clarify that I briefly installed Zazza a couple of years ago and saw the nitemare and removed it out of the gate from my machine.

Duane :)

We have a couple Sororities where the ladies run all sorts of P2P apps, at least they try too. It's simple to block with a firewall if you understand things you seem to miss.

Since we can't install software on the residents computers the firewall is the solution and understanding a firewall is what seperates the boys from the men.

If you had trimmed the post before replying, I'd have some clue as to what you are questioning, but yes I do have kids. They don't install software on the computers.

Old guy