Simple IP port questions

I'm fairly inexperienced on the IP side of life and have a couple questions.

1). Can ports (80, 21, etc) be enabled 'manually' on a workstation or
server?
2). Is there a Windows command that can be used to manually detect if a port
is open? I know I can use the 'telnet port xx' command to try to connect to
a port (assuming the telnet service is enabled).

Thanks,
Tom

1) Ports aren't "enabled", they're opened by a program who's listening on
them.

2) There isn't a built in windows command, but you can use the telnet
command (as you know...and doesn't need the telnet service to be enabled,
those are two different things), or the nmap port scanner (www.insecure.org)
or there's also a microsoft utility, but the name escapes me currently,
since I never use it. I think it's called portqry

Matt Gibson - GSEC

"Tom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm fairly inexperienced on the IP side of life and have a couple
> questions.
>
> 1). Can ports (80, 21, etc) be enabled 'manually' on a workstation or
> server?
> 2). Is there a Windows command that can be used to manually detect if a
> port is open? I know I can use the 'telnet port xx' command to try to
> connect to a port (assuming the telnet service is enabled).
>
> Thanks,
> Tom
>

Thanks Matt.

So...
1). Ports are, by default, 'open' to programs that use them (80 to HTTP, 21
to FTP, 25 to SMTP, etc). So, in order to prohibit port usage, you'd need
to implement port blocking software or a router?

2). Microsoft port scanners are weak compared to third party scanners...

Thanks,
Tom


"Matt Gibson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> 1) Ports aren't "enabled", they're opened by a program who's listening on
> them.
>
> 2) There isn't a built in windows command, but you can use the telnet
> command (as you know...and doesn't need the telnet service to be enabled,
> those are two different things), or the nmap port scanner
> (www.insecure.org) or there's also a microsoft utility, but the name
> escapes me currently, since I never use it. I think it's called portqry
>
> Matt Gibson - GSEC
>
> "Tom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> I'm fairly inexperienced on the IP side of life and have a couple
>> questions.
>>
>> 1). Can ports (80, 21, etc) be enabled 'manually' on a workstation or
>> server?
>> 2). Is there a Windows command that can be used to manually detect if a
>> port is open? I know I can use the 'telnet port xx' command to try to
>> connect to a port (assuming the telnet service is enabled).
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Tom
>>
>
>

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 09:18:17 -0500, "Tom" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Thanks Matt.
>
>So...
>1). Ports are, by default, 'open' to programs that use them (80 to HTTP, 21
>to FTP, 25 to SMTP, etc). So, in order to prohibit port usage, you'd need
>to implement port blocking software or a router?

Routers don't inherently block ports either, that's the job of a
firewall.

>2). Microsoft port scanners are weak compared to third party scanners...

If they weren't, why would third party tools exist?

Microsoft's tools are often very basic. Third party tools often have
the bells and whistles you need.

Jeff

>Thanks,
>Tom
>
>
>"Matt Gibson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> 1) Ports aren't "enabled", they're opened by a program who's listening on
>> them.
>>
>> 2) There isn't a built in windows command, but you can use the telnet
>> command (as you know...and doesn't need the telnet service to be enabled,
>> those are two different things), or the nmap port scanner
>> (www.insecure.org) or there's also a microsoft utility, but the name
>> escapes me currently, since I never use it. I think it's called portqry
>>
>> Matt Gibson - GSEC
>>
>> "Tom" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>>> I'm fairly inexperienced on the IP side of life and have a couple
>>> questions.
>>>
>>> 1). Can ports (80, 21, etc) be enabled 'manually' on a workstation or
>>> server?
>>> 2). Is there a Windows command that can be used to manually detect if a
>>> port is open? I know I can use the 'telnet port xx' command to try to
>>> connect to a port (assuming the telnet service is enabled).
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Tom
>>>
>>
>>
>