If you're running Exchange 2003/Win2003 and Outlook 2003, M$ added a capability called RPC over HTTPS to allow secure Outlook access over the internet without a VPN. If you're running anything previous, you can use a VPN. We have a Pix firewall that allows VPN out of the box. Lots of other firewall products out there offer VPN capabilities as well. I have about 8 users who travel on the road frequently (2 are full-time outside sales) that use the VPN to get in and connect to outlook. It requires some "user training" to get them used to the fact that Outlook isn't quite as fast over a 56K dialup as it is on the 100mb/s LAN. You're other option is OWA (just make sure you're using SSL) which works well, especially if a remote user needs a quick update. You can certainly do POP3/IMAP to an exchange but I don't really like these solutions very well, especially if you're remote. You don't know who could be looking at your network traffic. Any cheap freebie sniffer on the internet can get pop3 passwords in 2 seconds. I had to sound like a paranoid but I like to lean to the side of caution. Plus that means you have more ports open to the Internet for someone to hack. My rule of thumb is to open as little as possible. Your company will thank you for it. Regards, Mike Liddekee Network Engineer Humco Holding Group, Inc. 7400 Alumax Dr. Texarkana, TX 75501 Ph: (903) 831-7808 ext 697 -----Original Message----- From: Lloyd Williams [mailto:Williams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 11:56 AM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] RE: Block access to ports http://www.MSExchange.org/ Mike when you say <<There are numerous ways to make outlook available to users over the Internet without opening ports. >> Are you referring to POP & IMAP, or ways to configure your server/firewall such that Outlook users can choose "connect to exchange server" in their mail profile. If the latter do you have any references/ knowledge base articles Lloyd -----Original Message----- From: Mike Liddekee [mailto:mliddekee@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 10:38 AM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] RE: Block access to ports http://www.MSExchange.org/ That's correct. 135 is a critical port that is used by Windows and numerous applications. Its something you should never have open to the Internet. There are numerous ways to make outlook available to users over the Internet without opening ports. However there is no way to block this port internally on your network. You could certainly lock down servers using tcp/ip filtering on each individual machine buts that's time-consuming and its one of those things that is a mixed bag. You could block everything except on the essentials but if you try to rely on that alone and never do any more work, next week a hacker will find a vulnerability in one of those essentials that you left open and shut you down. Any company that's on the internet today and doesn't have a properly configured firewall is just asking for trouble. But in the same sense, you can't rely on a firewall alone. You have to have a multi-teir security setup in place to order to maximize your level of protection. It costs money but you need to weigh the costs of your operations being down for hours or even days when someone sends you the next nasty virus that you could have been protected from. Hindsight is always 20-20. Regards, Mike Liddekee Network Engineer Humco Holding Group, Inc. 7400 Alumax Dr. Texarkana, TX 75501 Ph: (903) 831-7808 ext 697 -----Original Message----- From: Lloyd Williams [mailto:Williams@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 9:31 AM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] RE: Block access to ports http://www.MSExchange.org/ I might not have a good understanding of how to handle ports, but is it a fundamental problem that port 135 is one of the most vulnerable ports, but it is also the port that exchange uses to communicate with Outlook. So if you close down access to this port you are limiting your self to use exchange just for POP IMAP and Web Access Lloyd Williams -----Original Message----- From: Mike Liddekee [mailto:mliddekee@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 9:52 AM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] RE: Block access to ports http://www.MSExchange.org/ It all depends on your setup. If you're trying to block at the firewall level, you need to determine what type firewall you're using and its setup. Most firewalls (unless misconfigured) should be set up to not allow any traffic in unless specifically allowed. If you're running a router w/ NAT and no "real" firewall, then that's where most people get burned. If anyone tells you NAT is a firewall, run the other direction as fast as you can. The other way people I know have gotten burned on the latest bug its that their outer perimeter is great but someone w/ a laptop goes home, dials up, gets infected, goes back to work and plugs in. These types of back doors will kill you every time. You can block these ports for this one but the next virus that comes out will require different ports, the next one will then require different ones, and so on. It'll be a never ending game of cat and house. The thing to do is to make sure things are locked down on your network to prevent these types of events and that all the proper systems are in place. You still can't guarantee yourself 100% (nothing in IT is 100%) but if you don't have the systems in place you'll be fighting for days every time a new event comes out. When I arrived at my current job we had none of these in place. After months of fighting, we now how these things in place and have had no viruses or Trojans of any type (knock on wood). Regards, Mike Liddekee Network Engineer Humco Holding Group, Inc. 7400 Alumax Dr. Texarkana, TX 75501 Ph: (903) 831-7808 ext 697 -----Original Message----- From: satish garimalla [mailto:satishgarimalla@xxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 8:33 AM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] Block access to ports http://www.MSExchange.org/ Hi All, I know this is a bit off the topic.But, we are having problems with the recent virus attacks.We are in the process of eliminating this. As recommended by symantic web site, Iam supposed to block access to TCP port 4444 at the firewall level and also block tcp port 135 "DCOM RPC" and UDP port 69 , "TFTP" Can any body explain me how to do this as I am not so familiar with this.All I want to know is that how to block these ports(from command prompt ?? or from windows itself ??) Either may be the case, could you please explain me the steps in doing so ... Thanking you very much , Satish Garimalla Narain Karthikeyan. He's fast, really fast. 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