Hi all,

testing my firewall at http://grc.com, my computer failed the port scan because port 113 was closed. All others were stealthed. I have two questions about this:

(1) is this a problem?

(2) if so, what can I attempt to fix it?

I am simply using the default firewall with Mandrake 9.1, set to disallow all incoming connections.

1: No.
2: You can change your firewall rule from "REJECT" to "DROP" for port 113/tcp, but I wouldn't recommend it. IRC and a number of other services attempt to challenge incoming connections by issuing an IDENT request to their IP. The connection will not be allowed to continue until the IDENT query has either been replied to or times-out. You could be waiting several minutes for the IDENT query to time-out, and in the mean time you might get dropped from the server (or your client might disconnect).

By leaving the rule set to "REJECT" it immediately tells the IRC server (or whatever is trying to IDENT you) that you are refusing the connection. The IRC server then goes on it's merry way and allows you to connect. There was recently a thread on this same forum about this very same question where the user said he had to reject the connection with a specific ICMP type and code. If I were you, I would search the board for "113" and "irc" and see if you can find it.

I searched as you recommended, and I think I'll leave it as it is. Thanks!