Any reason for ESS Firewall blocking incoming/outgoing NetBIOS Request by default?

[DarrenDavisLeeSome]

I disabled the default Firewall rules blocking incoming/outgoing NetBIOS requests and as soon as I did that I opened the Network folder and there were all of the systems on the network.

Question is: why does the ESS Firewall block these setting by default?

209343

[Cudni]

because most people have no network

[funkydude]

-{ Quote: "because most people have no network" }-

You don't need NetBIOS to use a network, infact if you want to stop the messages disable NetBIOS on your connection and it will still work fine. Useless pile of crap in my opinion.

[DarrenDavisLeeSome]

What messages are you talking about Funky?

If I do not tweak the default ESS Firewall rules and allow NetBIOS incoming/outgoing requests I have no home network to speak of other than just being able to surf the internet.

That was the whole point of this thread: why does ESS's Firewall not allow incoming/outgoing NetBIOS requests.

Could be I'm using an older Router that needs NetBIOS.

Or I could always keep the default rules as is and just do the RUN>\\Server\Share routine everytime I want to do stuff over the network.

What's so bad about NetBIOS anyways?

[Cudni]

-{ Quote: "
What's so bad about NetBIOS anyways?" }-
see
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=196

[funkydude]

-{ Quote: "What messages are you talking about Funky?

" }-

Sorry, I meant the messages appearing in the log. Have you tried disabling NetBIOS on the PC connection then rebooting and see if it still works with the router?

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[DarrenDavisLeeSome]

Uh...yeah...sure...if I DON'T want to see the other systems on my network. Apparently my Router needs NetBIOS...

[DarrenDavisLeeSome]

Ultimately what I've wound up doing is creating a custom rule for incoming/outgoing NetBIOS Requests in the Trusted Zone only. The default denials are for incoming/outgoing Internet Zone so that's probably why ESS's Firewall is blocking them.

[DarrenDavisLeeSome]

I think the NetBIOS security risks and flaws are more to do with larger networks. NetBIOS is more geared up for smaller networks with less than a handul of systems hooked up to it.