The biggest problem with hardware firewalls/NATs is the lack of configurability. Sure you can upgrade the firmware, etc. but only to a degree and it never seems to be the amount that you would like. I prefer a simple BSD box running IPFW..it's decently easy to configure and BSD seems to be significantly more stable than most flavors of Linux(no flame wars here...Linux is mostly a developers' platform where releases come out every week which inherently makes it a bit unstable for *nix(it still beats M$ hands down), while BSD is more commonly used for servers and such). Admitedly it's not as easy to configure the firewall since it doesn't have a pretty GUI but sheesh whattayawant?
You wanna hear another good one? I got locked out of my hotmail accnt about 3 years ago when they instituted the "are you 13 years of age or older?" policy..and I had put a fake birthday saying I was 3. Tried calling hotmail's support number...bwahahahahahahah I was on hold for over an hour and never talked to a single person..gave up. Next day I called as soon as the phones were activated and guess what...another hour and got the same thing.. This isn't an 800 number..it was a toll call.. Finally I just resorted to faking to be my own parent and then logged myself in and changed the b-day. Sheesh. Makes me wonder why nobody's done anything seriously nasty to them..
There ARE ways to get around ANI though. The fact that you know the difference means you probably know that already but figured that someone here might need to know. A really good publication to read for such things(including the crap that NCO is putting this guy through) is 2600 Magazine: The Hacker Quarterly
I am betting it's NCO Graphics out of North Carolina, they're a collection agency. I have NO idea how to get rid of them but at least I know why they're hunting me...stupid mistake made by an ISP who keeps conveniently forgetting to call them and say that our collection was settled months ago. Strangely enough I just joined and this came up and it's right up my alley...
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The biggest problem with hardware firewalls/NATs is the lack of configurability. Sure you can upgrade the firmware, etc. but only to a degree and it never seems to be the amount that you would like. I prefer a simple BSD box running IPFW..it's decently easy to configure and BSD seems to be significantly more stable than most flavors of Linux(no flame wars here...Linux is mostly a developers' platform where releases come out every week which inherently makes it a bit unstable for *nix(it still beats M$ hands down), while BSD is more commonly used for servers and such). Admitedly it's not as easy to configure the firewall since it doesn't have a pretty GUI but sheesh whattayawant?
You wanna hear another good one? I got locked out of my hotmail accnt about 3 years ago when they instituted the "are you 13 years of age or older?" policy..and I had put a fake birthday saying I was 3. Tried calling hotmail's support number...bwahahahahahahah I was on hold for over an hour and never talked to a single person..gave up. Next day I called as soon as the phones were activated and guess what...another hour and got the same thing.. This isn't an 800 number..it was a toll call.. Finally I just resorted to faking to be my own parent and then logged myself in and changed the b-day. Sheesh. Makes me wonder why nobody's done anything seriously nasty to them..
There ARE ways to get around ANI though. The fact that you know the difference means you probably know that already but figured that someone here might need to know. A really good publication to read for such things(including the crap that NCO is putting this guy through) is 2600 Magazine: The Hacker Quarterly
I am betting it's NCO Graphics out of North Carolina, they're a collection agency. I have NO idea how to get rid of them but at least I know why they're hunting me...stupid mistake made by an ISP who keeps conveniently forgetting to call them and say that our collection was settled months ago. Strangely enough I just joined and this came up and it's right up my alley... Stop Industrial and Corporate Espionage