Hey boys and girls,

I have just installed xampp, I love it, I've been giving some select friends my IP/Port so they can access my site, but I want to be able to mask the IP address somehow, I don't really care how, just as long as people cannot see my IP address and the port I have open. I don't care if it is a sub-domain or fake IP, or some type of masking program.

Please give me everthing possible you can think of!!

Luke

One of the consequences of running a server is that your machine is exposed to the internet and there is no way to "hide" it. The bad guys out there aren't sniffing for IP addresses, they're just running through IP ranges looking for computers that respond. If your friends have fixed IP addresses, you could probably write your firewall to only allow them in, but if they have dynamic IP addresses, that doesn't work. So rather than try to hide your machine, you need to do a few things to secure it. First, make sure you have a decent firewall in place and that it works. Second, make sure your system is fully patched. Third, set up an IDS system like Snort that can look for attacks. Lastly, set up a file integrity checking program like Tripwire or Aide and use it regularly.