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Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

Jorvik
Grafter
Posts: 38
Thanks: 10
Registered: ‎09-10-2013

Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

I've had a Plusnet Unlimited Fibre service  since late last year.
When it went live I had a forage around the Plusnet Member Centre (i.e. http://portal.plus.net) and found that the Plusnet Broadband Firewall was set to "OFF".
I wondered whether this was how it was supposed to be, vaguely wondered whether it might be some legacy of an older facility that PN provided that for some reason wasn't relevant any more (hence why it was turned off), thought I should look into it further, then life overtook and I forgot all about it until today.
Looking at it again, it seems like it'd be a sensible idea for it to be turned on (at least to the "low" setting) - but I'm a bit mystified as to why my new broadband service went live without it being turned on by default?
The idea of a configurable firewall at the ISP end is new to me - it's not something I came across with any of my previous ISPs.
I wonder if anyone can offer me some general enlightenment on the matter, thanks!
11 REPLIES 11
drunkenmonkey
Grafter
Posts: 1,661
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Registered: ‎13-06-2007

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

It's an optional service for those not comfortable setting up their firewall on their router or who want additional protection, for me personally I wouldn't appreciate it being on at setup.
It's not a legacy feature but it has been around for quite a while now
A lot of PN users especially those in the earlier days are quite geektastic and have custom firewall setups use custom ports for servers etc which the PN firewall would interfere with, I can only assume this is why it's off by default!
mwerle
Grafter
Posts: 87
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎14-01-2009

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

Well, thank you very much for this thread. On a whim I decided to re-check my settings, and lo and behold, it was on the "low" setting.
For some reason, someone (at PlusNet) has just turned my PlusNet firewall on.  NO BLEEPING WONDER MY DNS SERVER STOPPED RESPONDING.
I would now like to discover who the bleep decided to do this without bothering to notify me.
I am incredibly unimpressed as I have lost a lot of mail and access to my services over the last few days.
*goes to figure out a way of remote-rebooting his router since PlusNet has also kindly disabled access to the Telnet interface*
drunkenmonkey
Grafter
Posts: 1,661
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎13-06-2007

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

If you login in to my account and view your closed questions you should have a service notice/question that dates when it was switched on which might narrow it down for you. You'll probably have a lot of closed notices/questions as they are raised for almost every change made on your account including billing and bandwidth resets
davidj66
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 746
Thanks: 56
Fixes: 4
Registered: ‎04-09-2008

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

Opposite issue here...........just checked my PN firewall setting -and it was OFF - A bit strange as I'm sure I set it to LOW when my line was switched from 20CN to 21CN a few months ago!
chrispurvey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 5,369
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎13-07-2012

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

@mwerle
Apologies if you weren't notified, this is something our networks team have implemented as they have noticed a potential vulnerability with your router and/or something has triggered this from your connection.
Take a look at this thread to see if your DNS setting are OK.
drj
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 1,118
Thanks: 45
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Registered: ‎30-03-2011

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

I never knew about this either - just checked (direct link = https://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=firewall&firewallPage=basic) and found it off.
Not sure whether I need it or not since my router's firewall is set to "On". Have set the PlusNet one "Low" since I don't understand much of the technicalities and it doesn't seem it'll be a problem.
mwerle
Grafter
Posts: 87
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎14-01-2009

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

Quote from: Chris
@mwerle
Apologies if you weren't notified, this is something our networks team have implemented as they have noticed a potential vulnerability with your router and/or something has triggered this from your connection.

Hi Chris,
Thanks for response, but router was fine. Even if not it wouldn't be problem since my server is dns and dhcp for my lan.
Big problem as currently overseas.
Regardless of ANY issues I would expect PlusNet to at least attempt to contact me before changing settings.
Also still no replies to tracker.
Anyway managed to reboot router and all fixed -  except now no internet at all since 9am, but nothing to do with this issue.- Micha.
mwerle
Grafter
Posts: 87
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎14-01-2009

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

Quote from: buntrob
If you login in to my account and view your closed questions ....

Thanks:
Quote
Jonathan Whiting - IE - Generic
4:36pm, Wednesday 12 Mar 2014
The customer's firewall settings have been updated to "Low"

No reason given, no authorisation requested. Not impressed. IMJO this sort of behaviour is not what I expect. And of coutse only ever happens while overseas.
mwerle
Grafter
Posts: 87
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎14-01-2009

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

Just as an update; it looks like an automated system was being overzealous in notifying/blocking customer IPs which respond to DNS queries in response to a huge DDoS attack via DNS.
Apparently this has now been fixed.  I was also supposed to get notifications from the ticketing system so there's an investigation as to why those weren't (and aren't being) sent for tickets created automatically or by PlusNet staff.
I'd also like to apologise for my initial harsh tone.  No matter the personal circumstances at the time, it's just not acceptable.  The PlusNet staff (through these forums) are absolutely excellent, and validate the reason for me sticking with PlusNet over the years.
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

No need to apologise to us Smiley
I completely understand where you're coming from. We'll do our best to ensure that any changes in future are communicated out effectively.
mwerle
Grafter
Posts: 87
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎14-01-2009

Re: Plusnet Broadband Firewall?

I've (finally) had the original tracker updated, and apparently emails -were- sent out which fully described the circumstances.  Due to volume and server loads, some got lost. 
Guess I was doubly unlucky - firstly by being incorrectly targetted and secondly not receiving the notification email.
Murphy's!!