firewall not picking up anything - new internet connection

hi
this is slightly embarrassing for me because i might sound like an ignoramus with my explanation
a friend bought a new laptop and for an internet connection, she got a wireless modem, the kind which looks like a small flash drive which you plug into a usb slot
she asked me for help for setting up her laptop - installing the antivirus,firewall,browser etc.
first i installed looknstop and surfed the net to set up the permissions for various programs. I went to the looknstop interface and noticed that nothing was showing up in the packets display box - no packets recieved or blocked or whatever. I wondered why this was happening so i went to the 'shields up' website and did a test and it failed, almost all ports were open or unstealthed
i thought maybe the firewall was the problem, so then i installed zonealarm free and did a shields-up test again, but still the same result, and i checked the zonealarm thing and found that no packets were blocked while using the net
i think a firewall isn't working for this internet connection but i have no idea why...

 

its due to modem router setting for example I got beetle 220 modem once which open 3 ports no matter what you do its keep them open....so what I did is make it in bridge connection to close them and place my router direct connection..... but thats wired connection.

Your firewall is perfectly working behind it but on net you never know its real status because of your modem/router usb.

Why it keep showing open ports {means your modem is acting as gateway [nat router which hide your real ip and give your computer a private ip] with 2 ip address one external which shown on grc.com and second one internal (private) ip address.} which is check through your computer network icon) please check the ip address of your wireless icon of your computer its definitely got some private ip or example like 10.0.0.1
192.168.0.0....etc...
or you can also check it your computer internal ip through :- Go to RUN then type cmd then in command mode type ipconfig/all its your private ip of computer.


now whats happening let take example


your modem is converted your external ip address(your internet ip address) xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx to 192.168.0.1 so your firewall is working on 192.168.0.1 which is not on network as its has private address which is reserved.

so thats why what you getting from net is the status of your public ip(external one address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ) now your private ip is hidden so that why its not showing any status of your firewall on net as its already hidden and working on some other ip 192.168.0.1 which is not know on net....that why the open ports its showing is on xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx..which is your modem hardware open ports not your real firewall ones ...
HOPE it solve your problem....

If you can give details of your os system like xp or vista and your usb modem type I can give you more brief on it.

 

Some questions
1. Is it a umts/edge/gprs modem? (Huwaei modems very common in europian wireless connections)
2. Is the modem listed under the hardware tab of the OS?

@mack_guy911
Do not hastly jump in conclusions. The firewall will not work unless it's driver is loaded on the specific nick or modem and in some cases, where the connection goes through VPN (some providers do implement it in their wireless broadband connections) it will not work even if it is loaded; it will only see the encrypted traffic generated from the application that is used for the vpn.

Panagiotis

 

thanks for replying mack guy and pandlouk
the modem used is zte mg880
http://www.ztemt.com/ennewzte/product/productLoad.action?model.id=ff808081175ed16c01175f47ff400004#
the os is vista
i checked my ip address online, and the location given is not my current one,it's inaccurate
so maybe the readings of the shields-up test are not related to the computers actual ip but the one which is 'happening' with this modem or the internet provider, as mack guy suggested
yes pandlouk, the modem is listed under device manager/modems

so, i should just assume that everything is ok with the firewall?

 

Ok. Since its listed is easy to check if the firewall works or not.
Go at the "Network and Sharing Center" and select "Manage Network Connections". There you should see the modem. Right click it and select properties. On the new tab check if the driver of your firewall is listed and enabled.(LNS driver should be displayed there)

Panagiotis

 

pandlouk i checked it and the looknstop driver is present and enabled
so i guess that the firewall is working
thanks again for your time and assistance

 

Not exactly... It means only, that the firewall driver is correctly installed; It does not mean that works properly.

Now you should try to test if the driver intercepts the traffic correctly. Connect to the internet and try downloading something; does the firewall reports the traffic generated and the protocol used?
Then block with the firewall your browser and try navigating in internet; is it blocked or not?

Panagiotis

 

hello 123 try to block some site and check

and port for example bock 80 http and check if your computer connect to http or not

you can also try to connect by using proxy setting and see if your firewall blocks or not or try to connect icq....msn etc without setting rules for it if its auto set rules the block it and check......

with your firewall wall terminate any running download ......if yes that its working ........

check your firewall log files the site you block the download you termanted.... and sites you connected.....etc it will give your all details.....