If they plan on allowing people on the Internet to  ftp  into the site,
then port 21 will need to be open (or else people on the Internet will
have to do some convoluted things to get into their  ftp  server).

If they only plan on using  ftp  for their own use, then they might
move it to another port, but there wouldn't be much point to it since
any port scanner would find the open port and any decent one would
also be able to tell you that it was running an  ftp  server.

As a general rule, security by obscurity isn't the best policy.
It would be much better to leave  ftp  at its default port and
make sure that it is properly secured.

Another rule is that the firewall is only there to protect
non-server machines.  Any machine that is providing a service
on the Internet should be hardened as if the firewall weren't
there.

Mike Burden
Lynk Systems
(616)532-4985
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


Gerald Davies [[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote:
> hi,
>
> i would've thought it was better to advise him to shift ftp away from its
> default port. I know i`m straying off topic here but it should also be
> stressed that a firewall is pointless if the server is incorrectly
> configured.  In the past i have dealt with clients that believed that just
> because they had firewall'd servers that they were secure - IIS4 being the
> culprit in this case, but you can see my point.
>
> regards,
>
> Gerald.


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