just one thing about Shields Up (grc): the result you get there depend at 99,9% on your router and its settings. Not much to do with your Windows based firewall. I had some fun once on Comodo forums about that with another member happily reporting his Shields Up results everytime a new beta version of Comodo version was out...LOL this was aboslutely irrelevant. Easy to prove
; deactivate your Windows based firewall, assuming you got a router Firewall running, and run the test again. If your router FW is a good one (which is often the case, already with default settings), all your ports are already stealth. Now try the contrary, with any software firewall, and see how "easy" it is to get the same results
Your best firewall, concerning how well your ports are protected from online attacks/intrusions is your router's firewall, that's a fact.
I just did the test again a minute ago, with CIS firewall on, and then off, and got the same results in both cases:Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet — solicited or otherwise — was received from your system as a result of our security probing tests. Your system ignored and refused to reply to repeated Pings (ICMP Echo Requests). From the standpoint of the passing probes of any hacker, this machine does not exist on the Internet. Some questionable personal security systems expose their users by attempting to "counter-probe the prober", thus revealing themselves. But your system wisely remained silent in every way. Very nice.
