North American Network Operators Group

Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical

Re: Operational impact of filtering SMB/NETBIOS traffic?

  • From: Mike Johnson
  • Date: Sun Nov 19 16:22:18 2000

I've been reading this thread, and from the get go I've been wondering
why an ISP would consider filtering SMB, SSH, telnet, or any other well
used protocol.  I suppose I'm under the opinion that an ISP should let
their customers shoot themselves in the foot.

I'm not employed by an ISP.  I don't pass customer traffic across my
network.  I don't really have much of a network (though, if all goes
well, it'll get larger).  However, I would get annoyed if an ISP
filtered some of my traffic that I considered legitimate, even if
it is some micky-mouse, insecure protocol.  

If I want filtering, I'll call the ISP and ask for that service,
for which they should charge.  Otherwise, I'll go and buy my own
firewall.  They can be quite inexpensive and easy to use, even
for non-network folk.

It's difficult enough to debug network issues without having my ISPs
mucking with which protocols they're going to allow.

In the end, this sort of security should be up to me.  If I don't
like my feet, I should be allowed to add some additional metal, if
I so choose.

I guess I don't understand the argument and why an ISP would want
to filter SMB (quality of the protocol aside).

Mike
-- 
Mike Johnson
Network Engineer / iSun Networks, Inc.
Morrisville, NC
All opinions are mine, not those of my employer