This is probably a dumb question. It has been a long day and I am seeing two monitors (I only have one.)


If I run Nmap from my computer and scan my IPaddress, is it going to tell me what ports are open, or is it useless because it starts and stops at the same ip address? Also I ran to separate online port scans that said all port ports where stealth/true stealth. Nmap is saying differently, unless I am doing it wrong, lol. (I have a server set up that can be accessed from the internet (LAMP+) as well as some php administration programs.


Thanks

Running it from the outside is what counts the most, as it will see what an attacker from the outside will see. Scanning with Nmap from the machine to the same machine will show services local to that machine, which isn't exactly what you want. That's not to say that you shouldn't ocassionally conduct LAN scans...you definitely should, so that you know what an attacker will see if he gets past your firewall.

Thanks. I am starting to understand this. I also think I understand something else. Even if I am running a server, I can still have my ports scanned by someone on the outside and it can show true stealth, scanned from https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

From what I have tried and I am learning my computer is doing pretty well. I am so glad I didn't try to learn this on XP, lol.

Now if I could just find the right program to monitor incoming and outgoing traffic and log where it has been going/accessing, in a little more detail (GUI , Graph, etc.) other then the bandwidth in and out, then I will be set.