On Mon, Mar 18, 2002 at 11:49:21AM +0900, Antony Stace wrote:

> What about Optus's Cable and DSL services.  

Optus Cable has been wonderful.  (Un?)arguably, the best out of
all the broadband services.  Reliable, fast, and somewhat
expensive -- but not even approaching some of the prices of the
ADSL services for what you get.

> Anyone know if they block ports which are used in popular video conferencing 
>software(NetMeeting, Gnome Meeting) or telephone software?

Optus block port 80 and 139, which shouldn't really affect you.
If you _really_ need to run a webserver at home, you can always
run a https server (port 443).  They may block a few more since
I've last checked, but I think that's it.

> What about ssh, is that port blocked?

No.

Keep in mind that you are not meant to run services on your
computer, though, and ssh is strictly speaking considered a
service.  (One person on this list has had his account suspended
or terminated because of this ...)  So if you are going to go
with Optus, be smart and firewall up your box very tightly.
Optus have been rumoured (verified?) to portscan occasionally,
although this policy may change now that Optusnet is managing
them, rather than Excite@Home.  Be sensible; firewall off
everything and run those 'essential' services (i.e. ssh) on
non-standard port numbers.  For the service that you get, it's a
small price to pay.


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