Using NT/2k/XP/2k3? Now is a good time to patch.

[kandrathe]

A properly configured firewall offers no response at all to an attacker. It would appear as if no computer would hooked up to that IP address at all. If the PC('s) behind the firewall needed to offer services to the NET, then only those services would be visible from outside the firewall. When you have multiple devices that talk to one another on a LAN you need some type of protocol available for them to converse. Unfortunately, Microsoft has forever opted for a default configuration that is extremely open (assuming peer to peer, security free file and print sharing). If you shut off some of those services, some application and local services will also cease (like the ability to print). The upshot is that Microsoft's DCOM, RPC and most of their networking code is and has always been full of holes and they never fix it.

Then you have STUPID broadband ISP's like mine, who require that you use their machine name and be in workgroup "WORKGROUP" along with all 20,000 other subscribers. The day I got hooked up, I went to work and proceeded to hack into my home machine in less than two minutes. Then I did a port scan of pc's that were available for me to hack in that subnet. Over 2000. I picked up a firewall on the way home.