Stop Cocking About With The Firewall

[#1]

Hi
As per thread title. Twice in the space of a month you've put back on the Plusnet Firewall.
I Don't want nor need it. I turned it off when I signed up to PN. I turned it off when you turned it back on last month, and i've turned it off again.
Think we can keep it that way?

[#2]

Hi there,
The logs on your account shows that you made a few changes to the settings to this on the 15th.
As this wasn't requested by us either are you certain no one apart from yourself has access to your login details and maybe could be logging into the member centre?

[#3]

Hi Adam
Thanks for the reply, the only Firewall changed I've made, has been to turn OFF the firewall after receiving the below email (info redacted, emphasis on the what/whys).
Also I'd be surprised if anyone else knew the details - and if there was someone else who knew them - you'd think they'd do a bit more 'damage' than just turning the firewall on Low? (Password is unique to PN)

Email below:

Quote

Your username: matt2k34 Dear Mr Matt [snip], Important Notice About Your Account - Broadband Firewall Changes To maintain a high level of service for all our customers and to provide you with an increased level of security, we are making a small change which affects your account. What's happening? To help protect you from potential security threats we have activated a firewall for you. This will prevent unauthorised external access* to your router. To find out more about our firewall please refer to our information page: https://www.plus.net/support/security/firewalls/firewallfaq.shtml What do I need to do? You don't need to do anything. Your connection should continue to work as normal apart from a brief disconnection whilst we make these changes.  In the vast majority of cases your router will automatically reconnect.  If you experience problems getting reconnected following this maintenance please try a single reboot of your router (simply power off and on again). If you have any concerns and would like to advice on this issue please call us on 0800 432 0200. Kind regards, David Leather Chief Operating Officer http://www.plus.net * More details about what your firewall does to protect you and how this might affect your service can be found at http://community.plus.net/firewall-lo This email has been sent as it contains important information about your service from Plusnet. Please do not reply to this email, as this is an unmonitored address. Plusnet PLC Registered Office: The Balance, 2 Pinfold Street, Sheffield, S1 2GU Registered in England no: 3279013

[#4]

Hi Matt.  It's worth checking out things such as whether your router has an open DNS resolver and spyware/malware checking your systems. The firewall would have been turned on by us based on strange network traffic.

[#5]

Yeah, this doesn't look great:

C:\Windows\System32>nslookup bbc.co.uk 81.174.xxx.xxx
Server:  xxxxxxxx.plus.com
Address:  81.174.xxx.xxx
Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    bbc.co.uk
Addresses:  212.58.246.104
          212.58.244.18
          212.58.246.103
          212.58.244.20

Unless I'm mistaken, your router is responding to DNS lookups.

[#6]

Hi Gents
Thanks for the speedy reply 
The DNS Resolver was intentional (I was messing about with something remotely from the house, and didn't have the time to wait for the Domain hosters' DNS to propagate) - although I did forget to switch that off, so good find.
Is this automatic - based on the traffic received? If yes, nice! that's pretty impressive. The problem then is that the accompanying email is a little bit "meh" in terms of how it explains this?  (I get you're keeping it "simple" for end users)
are there anymore "Gotcha's" to be aware of if the above is true?? 
Again, much appreciated Adam, Chris and Bob.
Matt