[There's a reason that Yoda is the unofficial mascot of SBS. Size indeed matters not.] Vendors and Ports - THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA
Tue, Sep 26 2006 19:28 bradley

Vendors and Ports

I was chatting with Marina today (you know M of the M&M's of www.smallbizserver.net and all that) and she had a client using software from www.netop.com for remote control...and the vendor indicates that the software requires inbound port 80.  And the two of us are like ... excuse me?  We both think it's like gotomypc and probably sends out a beacon signal that you can then tunnel back in on.  Fortunately she has clients who know her style and trust her judgement and when the vendor said "inbound port 80", her client said "I don't think Marina will like that" and called her.

I too have had a vendor tell me "inbound 80" and I had to go up three levels of support until I found someone who said.. "uh...no, just outbound".

When a vendor tells you something that you just don't feel is right...question them.

Things like "guaranteed 100% uptime".... okay you don't install patches and reboot then do you?

Things like "inbound port 80".... you running a web site?

Things like "hipaa compliant".... ask Alun about that one....

Bottom line... when things don't sound right... ask.

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# re: Vendors and Ports

Tuesday, October 03, 2006 8:46 PM by Marina (One of the Magicals)

As I don't know everything and all either, I had emailed the netop people to ask about it. This was the answer I received:

<<<<<< Start of quote >>>>>>
Can you please clarify this for me? Does the netop on demand program require that the receiving computer who is asking for support, has port 80 inbound open? <<<<<< End of quote >>>>>>
 Hi, This is absolutely nonsens. At the site of the customer, the support asking computer, no configuration or whatsoever is needed. On the contrary at the site of the helpdesk port 80 has to be open for in-and outbound traffic. Best regards, Gerrit Schoenmaker - Product Manager NetOp Software

A shame though that (some) companies that are using this software don't know this and are asking people to open port 80 inbound totally unnecessary. I don't even want to know how many innocent people have done this trusting it is fine.....