North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Operational impact of filtering SMB/NETBIOS traffic?

  • From: Shawn McMahon
  • Date: Sun Nov 19 18:55:26 2000 
On Sun, Nov 19, 2000 at 04:30:12PM -0500, Mike Johnson wrote:
> 
> 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.

Because the majoriy of one's customers are clueless morons, open to being
owned by the 31337-haX0rs of the world.

So it is better to block it by default, and open it where requested, than to
leave it open and thereby be the source of a massive DoS that gets your
IP blackholed to major networks, your business disrupted, and possibly
your equipment confiscated by overzealous FBI or Secret Service agents.

Better a couple of customers briefly pissed off than a lot of customers pissed
off at length.

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