open and close ports

[inkastinka]

what is the easiest way to open and close ports on a Windows 2000 - 2003 server?

does anyone have any good sites on securing a windows 2000 - 2003 server? perhaps just a little tips and how to

 

[chriscj21]

Using "Advanced TCP/IP Settings" for each NIC in your machine you can specify allowed ports for IP traffic....

This is done on a per network card basis....

HTH



ChrisCj21
MCSE, A+, N+

 

[itsp1965]

Inkastinka, you could also use a desktop firewall on your server, if you don't want to play with port settings directly. For good documentation on securing Win2K/2K3 go to the NSA website nsa2.

http://www.conxion.com/win2k.

There is some good documentation there.

 

[inkastinka]

looks like that site has been boughten up by another company..

any more sites

thanks for the tips!

I don't think that installing a personal firewall on 500 servers is a good thing to do.. going to put a server out in the free world(DMZ).. and just wanted a few ports open...

 

[rsoxhater]

Win2k3 has the windows firewall built in - you can activate that and open the few ports you need. I have a test 2k3 server sitting in our DMZ zone with the firewall enabled - so far has been working fine with no problems whatsoever.

 

[inkastinka]

right on... have just been working in 2000 mode untill last month... anything you would recommend we look out for when putting a machine in the DMZ??

 

[rsoxhater]

Overall I haven't touched the server in a few months other than monitoring it. Its just been used as a http server to test out IIS6. If your using it in production keep an eye on the windows updates - install all the current critical updates and new ones that come out. 2nd tuesday of every month Microsoft releases patches that should be installed ASAP. Also, I'd put a good antivirus software on their as a safety net. Finally - make sure you have services running at whatever port you have open - ie don't open 80 and not have IIS or another webserver running.

Other than that the firewall is very easy to configure - it gives you a list of common firewall ports that you might need opened, such as ftp, http, etc. It also allows you specfic ports which you might need for whatever you are running on the server.

I have talked to people that have ran Win2k3 connected to the internet with no hardwall firewall at all and have had no problems with just the windows firewall enabled. I still prefer my hardware firewall in front of it though since I don't trust Microsoft that much, but they seem to have done a pretty good job with this firewall.