| Author |
Message |
Geoff
Guest
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 Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 7:39 am Post subject:
Testing networks for security |
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Is there a good method to test network security thats easy to understand
for newcomer
I have read about grc.com but have seen replies saying that it is worthless
Regards
Geoff |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:21 pm Post subject:
Re: Testing networks for security |
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Geoff <geoffNoSpam@totalautomotive.org> wrote:
| Quote: | Is there a good method to test network security thats easy to understand
for newcomer
I have read about grc.com but have seen replies saying that it is worthless
|
There are some sites - like shieldsup - that offer to 'test' your
security for you.
They are not bad, but ultimately computer security is a potentially very
complex thing and cannot, in general, be made 'easy to understand for a
newcomer'; no single site, or couple of sites for that matter, can check
everything there's to know about security.
Then again, if you follow basic security guidelines you are likely to
stay out of the worst. Basic security guidelines include, but are
probably not limited to, having a personal firewall of some sort, or, if
at all possible, at least a NAT router and preferably a real firewall;
dumping IE and Outlook (Express), or configuring them well (but
installing Firefox is a much quicker road to that end); regular updates;
and not installing anything you find on the internet.
Joachim |
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Geoff
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:41 am Post subject:
Re: Testing networks for security |
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jKILLSPAM.schipper@math.uu.nl wrote:
| Quote: | Geoff <geoffNoSpam@totalautomotive.org> wrote:
Is there a good method to test network security thats easy to understand
for newcomer
I have read about grc.com but have seen replies saying that it is worthless
There are some sites - like shieldsup - that offer to 'test' your
security for you.
They are not bad, but ultimately computer security is a potentially very
complex thing and cannot, in general, be made 'easy to understand for a
newcomer'; no single site, or couple of sites for that matter, can check
everything there's to know about security.
Then again, if you follow basic security guidelines you are likely to
stay out of the worst. Basic security guidelines include, but are
probably not limited to, having a personal firewall of some sort, or, if
at all possible, at least a NAT router and preferably a real firewall;
dumping IE and Outlook (Express), or configuring them well (but
installing Firefox is a much quicker road to that end); regular updates;
and not installing anything you find on the internet.
Joachim
|
Thanks Joachim
I do use Firefox and Thunderbird already, have a NAT router which has
some firewall capabilities.
When you say use a "real firewall" do you mean a dedicated firewall box
such as a 'smoothwall' variant ?
Regards
Geoff |
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Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Dec 07, 2005 4:36 am Post subject:
Re: Testing networks for security |
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Geoff <geoffNoSpam@totalautomotive.org> wrote:
| Quote: | I do use Firefox and Thunderbird already, have a NAT router which has
some firewall capabilities.
When you say use a "real firewall" do you mean a dedicated firewall box
such as a 'smoothwall' variant ?
|
Okay, that should be good.
A 'real firewall' in this respect is mostly characterized by the ability
to filter outgoing traffic. A NAT router will do pretty well on incoming
traffic in most of the cases, but will not do anything to outgoing
traffic.
There are also numerous other, more advanced things a firewall could do,
but I think the above would be most critical. However, it does require a
good deal more knowledge than a NAT router to configure properly.
And yes, a smoothwall box would fit this just fine. It should be a
dedicated box.
Joachim |
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