Open (external) port after (default) install?

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Thu, Oct 07, 2004 at 10:13:46PM -0700, Darren Critchley wrote:

> Don't know if you have a firewall in front of Ubuntu that logs 
> connections, but if you do, watch what happens when ubuntu boots up:
> I have done two installation on two different boxes with two different 
> builds of Ubuntu, and find that on boot, it likes to connect to :
> 216.154.195.60 on port 123 OR
> 213.84.180.73 on port 123
> The first ip address resolves to http://forum.spamcop.net/ and the 
> second one resolves to jansen.cx
> Why is ubuntu logging into port 123 of these addresses on boot?
> Now, if we are reporting things to spamcop, fine, but we should be 
> informed, I do not like distros that report things without my knowledge.

Port 123, as a web search would reveal, is the NTP protocol, and this is
Ubuntu setting your clock for you.

-- 
 - mdz