firewall questions

okay i did a quick read of search results on firewalls and didn't see my dumb questions there (they probably are) any way, i have NIS2005 with firewall. i get inbound requests from other computers. the latest on is a " Echo Request (8)" what does that mean and should i permit, block or what? i've been blocking once each time. even went the NIS recommends permit always. does NIS always know best? i do not have any file sharing programs active. my son has bearshare but the sharing is off and the program is shut down. my browser is IE6. i have a broadband connection. i am running folding@home. i get these inbound requests at any time. even when the computer is not in use. could it be the folding communicating with home server? the WU is not completed tho. thank you in advance.

 

Echo Request can be a couple of things. Another computer trying to ping you, or a worm/virus checking to see if your are "open for business." Now you have to ask yourself, why would strange computers try to ping you?

Block it! In fact, you want to block EVERYTHING, except html traffic over port 80, and ports use for mail, if you use a mail client. You may want to have FTP open also (initiated from the inside only though, unless your are running FTP), if you do any transfers. Other than that, keep everything else closed. If nothing is "broken" then why open anything?

Is "folding@home" working properly? No error messages? Then it doesn't need it. I checked their website, and they don't mention anything about having additional ports open on a firewall. So I'm assuming they are using port 80.

Scott
http://www.AAApcMechanic.com