firewalls and webservers request for comments

[Frank Wiles]

On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 17:05:45 -0500
"aaron hirsch" <aaronh at uptime.net> wrote:

> Why tell anyone here are the ports you will need to have open when all
> they have specified is services?  Wouldn't it have been better to ask
> IF they wanted pop3/pop3s/imap/imaps before telling them to open xyz
> ports? I'm not trying to be a dick, but get the facts before telling
> someone to open xyz ports.  Why should they open pop3 to the world if
> they are going to use imap, or vice-versa; heck why open them to the
> world at all if they are going to use webmail and imap and pop3 access
> are only required from the webserver?  I've set up many mail servers
> where the only service available to the world is smtp, port 25, and
> http/https. Why open the door further than it needs to be?  

  I wasn't trying to give him advice on how to run his E-mail setup. 

  The listing of the ports was just an example to help illustrate why
  running a firewall in front of an E-mail server is typically
  pointless.

  I apologize if that wasn't clear. 

 ---------------------------------
   Frank Wiles <frank at wiles.org>
   http://www.wiles.org
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