Firewall question

[R Kimber]

On Mon, 09 Mar 2009 03:56:38 -0700
Thorny wrote:

> On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 17:56:49 +0000, R Kimber wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 08:25:42 -0700
> > Thorny wrote:
> > 
> >> On Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:46:04 +0000, R Kimber wrote:
> >> 
> >> > My firewall is blocking a particular website
> >> > (www.pollingreport.com) despite the fact that I have set up no
> >> > rules for it to do so.
> >> > 
> >> > I'm using Firestarter on 8.10 and I can see the IP listed under
> >> > Events -> Blocked connections
> >> > 
> >> > Can anyone suggest what the problem is?
> >> > 
> >> > 
> >> Perhaps it is not a problem at all, perhaps it is a feature. If
> >> your system didn't request a connection to that server, and the
> >> server was trying to connect to a port on your machine, then drop
> >> the packet would be a reasonable response for a firewall.
> > 
> > I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. Obviously I'm trying
> > to see the website.  Why would the browser not request a
> > connection, and only not request it on that particular website?
> > 
> 
> From your question it was not at all obvious what you were trying or
> not trying. Actually it's still not exactly clear. It's always a good
> idea to remember that people on the list are not looking over your
> shoulder at your screen and thus you need to present a good idea of
> the actual situation. From the context of your post I assume that you
> have tried to browse to that site, but you haven't mentioned what
> happens or any error report you've seen. 

The firewall is blocking it.  There's no error. If there was a 404,
there surely wouldn't be any block. The message from Firestarter is

Date port source protocol service

Mar 9 16:45:49 52959 174.132.128.187 TCP unknown

In the browser, nothing happens for a while and then it (or maybe one
of the plugins) reports a network timeout. I can ping the server OK.

- Richard
-- 
Richard Kimber
http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/