[NCLUG] Closing ports

[dobbster]

Never mind, I think I found my problem.  Evidently, using portsentry in
non-stealth mode will cause it to listen to the ports specified in its
configuration file.  portmap, imap, etc. are all listed there by default.  

As a test, I killed portsentry and then ran nmap and netstat -l again.  Sure
enough, all of those mysterious "open" ports were now gone.  I guess the real
problem was that I didn't fully understand what portsentry was doing.  It's
something I would have known if I had rtfm.

(I hope I am understanding this correctly.  It seems a little weird.  If
portsentry's default is to show the world a bunch of open ports, it would seem
to invite trouble.  If I am completely off, please let me know.  Do other people
even use portsentry?) 

Anyway, thanks for the help.  Have a happy snowy earth day!

Mark