[ale] DSL woes

[krwatson at cc.gatech.edu]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Jim
> Lynch
> Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 12:34
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: [ale] DSL woes
> 
> I'm having trouble with BS  sorry ATT DSL.  (I know, what's new).  Here
> a few months back one of my apps developed a hearing problem.  It was
> hung from a non standard port and for some reason I could not get to
> that port from the WAN.  I determined the firewall in the router is
> still set up right.  Kinda strange, the non standard ports that I have
> opened all of the time still work however the ones I bring up and down
> don't.  It's like they did a port scan and closed all my unused ports
> for me.
> 
> Anyway they won't talk with me about the problem unless I'm running
> Windows. So I'm going to disconnect everything from the modem except a
> switch and a Win XP box and run something listening to a blocked port so
> I can prove to them it isn't working.  I don't have much hope they will
> do anything about it but I'm going to try.  Can someone suggest an
> application that listens on a non standard port or something that lets
> you config the port on Win XP?  Preferably a free one.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jim.
> 


Jim,

As several have mentioned you can use netcat.

Netcat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netcat

At the bottom of the page is a link to a Windows native version so you don't have to mess with Cygwin.

Microsoft Windows version of netcat
http://www.securityfocus.com/tools/139


Another option is to use PortTest (public domain).
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~krwatson/files/porttest_v1.00.zip

Pros: The person on the other end (in this case AT&T) only needs a browser.
Cons: Only tests TCP (not UDP).

At one time I had a similar problem so I put together PortTest which was based on another utility I had already written. I needed to be able to walk a non-technical user through the process and most people already know how to use a browser (as opposed to telnet), although now that I think about it I could probably get a browser and netcat to do the same thing. Of course that would still only do TCP.

Have fun storming the castle,
Keith

-- 

Keith R. Watson                        Georgia Institute of Technology
Systems Support Specialist IV          College of Computing
keith.watson at cc.gatech.edu             801 Atlantic Drive NW
(404) 385-7401                         Atlanta, GA  30332-0280