don't know how to ask this question without violating EE's Terms of Service. Is it possible to scan for open ports at a particular IP address? Most services of this type scan only MY static IP. Can someone answer this question or point me to legitimate resources for doing this? I am just trying to learn...not hack...although I know that this knowledge could be and often is used for that. I know that security consultants are often paid to break into company servers....to expose weaknesses so that company can plug the holes...close open ports...etc. What software do these security consultants use?

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www.jinx.com
Go to the newbie's area in their forums and post there. I will not teach you how to hack, even though it is not illegal. If you want a port scanner; search it on google.

Hope this helped

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As far as I'm concerned, it is not illegal to scan open ports. At least if you do it for a purpose and on small scale and do not try to go around a firewall for example.


Port scanners are not also illegal and like IcedMetal said, you should be able to find one from google. Just be careful what you download as we're a bit in the "grey area".

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You see a knife is a tool, a kitchen cutlery and can be used as a weapon. And like the others say these programs are not illegal but can be used for illegal purposes.

As an IT I use a program call SuperScan which is one of the best I know and I use it for monitoring as well as checking for open ports. There are quite few others around.

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Security Advisory sites usually list the Top (recommended by users) Security/Networking tools. I think SecurityFocus.com has a list of the "Best" ones.

There you will find tools that a lot of people use on Linux/Unix/Windows/BSD etc, however Security Consultants probably use either these tools or have created their own tools, which may or may not be available to the public, you'll just have to hunt for them.

Even though it's not illegal for these tools, it can violate the agreement you have with your ISP and some other parties. If you get reported, then you should not complain as you knew what consequences you could face and it could be taken further if any signs of unauthorised access was attempted multiple times.

Unless you own the network, or have explicit permission from the owner (written and signed form would be good) you should not attempt to use them on those networks.

If you do decide to use these tools, read the heavily documented manuals, look up specific areas that you're not understanding until you understand it. I find a lot of people want ease of use, but the fact is that these tools were designed for a specific purpose that the end user should already know about before using these tools. This is to save a lot of people the hassle of being asked for help and only when technical questions are encountered, would it be a good idea to ask? (dependant on the person too).


Cheers,


MC

 

 

 

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By far the best port scanning tool is nmap. http://nmap.org

It can perform very sophisticated stelth scans, and firewall mapping.
even things like ftp bounce attacks, and fully untraceable idle host scans.

If a hacker tries to get into your system, they will be using nmap.

Using nmap on a computer that you own (or are in charge of keeping secure)
will give you a good idea of what a hacker will see when they attempt to break in.

Like others have said here, You cannot protect yourself unless you know how the bad people are going to be attacking you.

good luck.

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In windows I use SuperScan or ProPort. Both are nice. I also use NeoTrace, because I do want to know where attacks on my system come from And I do keep track of that. Simply for one reason, if they hit me once, it's ok.. like 3 times then I do report the IP.

As far as scanning for open ports, I only do that on request. For example, while I was a member of a re-enactment group online, while chatting we would often get hack attempts. To make sure we were all ok, I scanned everyone's ports to see which ones were open. If you're given permission then it's not illegal. Otherwise, I would not go there.

As far as Linux goes, I prefer to use linux for all of that I feel better in linux when it comes to safety.

Ok that's it, I dozed off while typing this.. I am going to bed LOL

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