[LINK] Fwd: Telstra plugs NetBIOS port 139

[Eric Scheid]

Happy to see this ... though of course I'm not affected as I don't run 
the [intrinsically deficient] operating system ;-)

Although they recommend switching to FTP for filesharing, they don't 
mention the disadvantage of passwords sent in the clear. tch tch tch! 
Hmmm... given the one-sided recommendation for FTP I wonder what else 
they have neglected to mention regarding the downside of firewalling port 
139?

Interesting to see a shift of attitude from "tough, not our problem" to 
"it's your problem, but we're copping flak so clean up your system" to 
finally "we can do something, so lets get off our wombats". Hopefully 
they will apply the same shift of attitude to dealing with spam, rather 
than their previous/current attitude of hands-off/not-our-problem.

e.

---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------
Date:        11/10/00 7:57 PM
Received:    11/10/00 8:17 PM
From:        helpdesk@bigpond.net.au

IMPORTANT MESSAGE RE: CLOSURE OF THE NETBIOS PORT

Dear Telstra BigPond customers,

Two weeks ago, Telstra notified all customers about the presence of a 
virus, known as "qaz trojan" or "qaz worm", that has been spreading 
itself over the Internet. This virus is responsible for increased traffic 
and performance degradation on some customers service.

For the security of your PC, the security of other customers, and for the 
quality of the BigPond service, Telstra asked its customers to use a 
virus detector to remove this virus. Whilst this has helped in reducing 
the amount of virus activity, we have recognised that we will not be able 
to achieve complete eradication of these viruses without a more 
comprehensive approach.

Following extensive customer feedback regarding the impact of this virus, 
Telstra BigPond has made the decision to close (at the cable modem 
routers) Port 139 through which the virus propagates. This should 
restrict the virus and improve the service.

Closing Port 139 (also known as the NetBios port) will mean that all 
BigPond customers will no longer be able to use certain functions that 
this port would normally facilitate. In particular, some network sharing 
services (file and print sharing) through our network will cease 
operating. Volume based plan customers (Blast off and Business Plans) 
only use this feature as hosting servers is a breach of the Acceptable 
Use Policy for Freedom Plan customers.

Customers who wish to continue to share files may implement an FTP 
server. An FTP server allows others other people on the Internet to 
access files on thier computer using a web browser such as Internet 
Explorer or Netscape. The advantage of an FTP server is that most 
packages allow at least some of the following:

-- Control over which files or folders are accessible
-- Control over the type of access (eg. read-only or read-write)
-- The set up of usernames passwords to stop unauthorised access
-- The set up of restrictions based on IP addresses to stop unauthorised 
access.

You should think about what security features suit your needs before 
choosing and installing an FTP server. Please note that Telstra does not 
support any FTP servers. Telstra also does not recommend any FTP server 
over another. You may find a number of FTP servers at

Win95/98: <http://tucows.mirror.aarnet.edu.au/ftpserver95.html> 

WinNT:    <http://tucows.mirror.aarnet.edu.au/ftpservernt.html> 

Win2000:  <http://tucows.mirror.aarnet.edu.au/win2k/ftpserver2k.html> 

WinME:    <http://tucows.mirror.aarnet.edu.au/winme/ftpserverme.html> 

Some Freeware are:
     WAR FTP Daemon
     NiteServer
     GuildFTP


We intend to close the Netbios Port between 5am and 7am on Thursday 19th 
October. There is no disruption to service at this time.

Should you have any further questions, please e-mail us at 
helpdesk@bigpond.net.au.

Thank you to all those customers notifying us of this problem. As a 
result we are able to action a solution to improve the service.

Regards,


Telstra BigPond

----------------- End Forwarded Message -----------------

______________________________________________________________________
eric@ironclad.net.au                 i r o n c l a d   n e t w o r k s
information designer                       http://www.ironclad.net.au/