Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls

Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls
Alex Salkever, Business Week 2001-11-20

Citing finicky configuration problems, the major high-speed providers discourage their use -- a backward and dangerous policy

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Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls 2001-11-20
Anonymous

GRC.com did an interesting disection of a DDOS attack on their sites a while back. The information they gathered present a rather dim picture for broadband in general when tied into trojan attacks. Pretty decent intro read.

http://grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm...

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Broadband ISPs vs. the GreyMatter Challenged 2001-11-21
Mnemonic Method (6 replies)

Saying that a Broadband provider should provide firewall support its customers is like saying they should also provide help in configuring sendmail and maybe installation help for users of Windows (oh, why not...Linux too, all 1000 distros), and while they're at it they should support RAM installati...

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Broadband ISPs vs. the GreyMatter Challenged 2001-11-21
Mot

True that they are not "responsible" for supporting customer's firewalls however, I find it quite irresponsible to advise against the use of a firewall.

Quoted from the article;

"In fact, a frightening number of cable companies and DSL providers tell their users not to run a firewall."

Furthe...

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Broadband ISPs vs. the GreyMatter Challenged 2001-11-21
Anonymous

Once again. Unsecured "zombie" machines are dangerous and can easily be used for distributed denial of service attacks. The ISP is responsible for providing a pipe and keeping it clear. You wouldn't use a sewer provider that didn't provide an unobstructed pipe, why should you use an ISP that has ...

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Putting Liability in the Right Place RE:Broadband ISPs vs. the GreyMatter Challenged 2001-11-21
Joel Peach (jpeach[AT]traceris[DOT]com)

Sure, ISPs may not currently be accountable for the poor security at the end of their "pipes", and this is problematic for many of the reasons described by Ross Anderson (see "Why Information Security is Hard -- An Economic Perspective" http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/ftp/users/rja14/econ.pdf). If the finan...

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Broadband ISPs vs. the GreyMatter Challenged 2001-11-22
Sjonnie

An ISP should deliver a Pipe, and if they have to do diagnostics, use less intrusive ones that do not interfere or trigger personal firewall, and most of all, if the diagnostic does not run properly, not disconnect the customer....

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Broadband ISPs vs. the GreyMatter Challenged 2001-11-22
Adams

Maybe not, but it is there job to atleast inform there customers that there is a security risk associated with being always connected while unprotected. There is a diffenrence between informing and supporting....

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Broadband ISPs vs. the GreyMatter Challenged 2001-11-23
Nick Palmer

I can see that the Broadband ISPs should not be expected to support the firewall software; however, I don't believe that they should make its removal a precondition of providing help to the user. If there business is to provide a functioning pipe and that's all, then they should not require interfe...

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Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls 2001-11-21
Anonymous

These aren't the only two firewalls on the market, either. I have had great success with Black Ice Defender Workstation and Black Ice Server for my Win2k box. Also, a router can include a nice firewall with stateful packet inspection. Unless your hosting anything, just the router by itself is pretty...

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Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls 2001-11-21
ddescault (at) socal.rr (dot) com [email concealed]

I use SOHO's Watchguard, a true hardware firewall and I also use Zone Alarm for privacy and security. The SOHO cost around $350 and I also pay and annual fee of $95.00 for upgrades and support and believe me, the the support people at SOHO are very very expert people and super helpful, making the c...

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Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls 2001-11-21
Chris Leonardos <cleonardos (at) triumph (dot) com [email concealed]>

Asking the service provider to support firewall configuration when they are charging $49 a month for the service is not realistic. If you are smart enough, to one, know you need a firewall, and two actually install it, you best be smart enough to set up your own cable modem connection. Furthermore...

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Re: Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls 2001-11-22
anakata <anakata (at) anakata.hack (dot) se [email concealed]>

Who needs a firewall for a desktop system? Why not simply ensure that one does not run any unneccessary/insecure services? Firewalls for home/desktop systems are just hype and hysteria, and f.ex. ZoneAlarm is mostly snake oil, as it does NOT, despite claims, offer any real protection against malware...

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Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls 2001-11-22
jorgen (at) ssc (dot) net [email concealed]

Why am I not surprised why RR told you to get rid of the firewall? Because 999 out of 1000 times when a customer _has_ a firewall, the firewall is the problem. You cant expect support when you call your isp and ask them about a product they havent sold you or have anything to do with. They arent tha...

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Broadband ISPs Shouldn't Knock Down Firewalls 2001-11-23
dev.dekker

Having been an administrator at a local ISP, I can completely understand from a support standpoint the unwillingness to troubleshoot problems on a machine with a personal firewall installed. Not knowing the aptitude of the users setup, there could be all manner of things interfering with network co...

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