Help:Firewalling
Firewalling out Off Campus Connections
Due to the restrictions and threats of disconnections by ITS on campus, it is worth thinking about blocking all external connections to DC++ on campus. This does NOT guarantee safety from ITS on campus, but it will stop you using any external bandwidth and hopefully keep you a bit more under the radar. Almost all the time, connections between on campus and off campus people are impossible due to the traffic shaper, so even without any kind of firewall rules in place you should not be transferring to or from somebody off campus. However, the connection attempts will be detected and blocked by the traffic shaper even if you do not see any transfers in DC++ (although a connection may rarely slip through the traffic shaper).
Firewalling off campus out is only intended as an extra layer of security, and does not guarantee you safety from ITS. We do believe that is is by far the best thing you can do though and recommend it to everybody.
Guides for blocking blocking external connections to DC++ in various firewalls are below. If you are looking for a quick and easy firewall to block connections, TDIFW, Sygate Personal Firewall 5.6 (NB. Now owned by Symantec so you would have to use a version equal to or below this) and Sunbelt Personal Firewall works for free doing this job even after the trial license runs out. NB. This is NOT the Kerio WinRoute Firewall. Tiny is also good, but this is shareware.
One of these is probably the best choices if you need a new firewall specifically for blocking external connections as they are reasonably light on system resources.
==Sygate Personal Firewall== (guide produced by fallingmagpie)
Works on Windows XP or below only. Free shareware, continues to work after license runs out. Downloadable from http://www.download.com/Sygate-Personal-Firewall/3000-2092_4-10049526.html.
==TDIFW== (guide produced by astropoint & Rampage)
Free Firewall
This is a quick and easy way to get a foolproof firewall set up. (XP and below only)
To block connections to Off campus users you must ensure the following:
Your DC++ application should be C:\Program Files\DC++\DCPlusPlus.exe. This is the default location when you install DC++.
Now download the preconfigured TDIFW from the http://www.twofo.co.uk/resources/tdifw.zip , unzip the contents onto your C: drive, run the file 'install' and restart your computer. That is all you need! Please check with an Operator to confirm whether the firewall is working. (When Off Campus you can just uninstall the firewall from the unzipped folder in C drive or disable the service.)
==Comodo Personal Firewall 3== (guide produced by Rampage)
Free firewall
Version 3 is Windows Vista compatible
There is also a guide available for Comodo Personal Firewall Version 2.4 here.
You can download Comodo Personal firewall from http://personalfirewall.comodo.com.
==Sunbelt (Kerio)== (guide produced by astropoint)
This is NOT the Kerio WinRoute Firewall
Windows XP and below only
Download from http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloads/2128767/kerio-personal-firewall
==ZoneAlarm== (guide produced by Huck)
This is NOT the free version of the firewall. As far as we know the free version of the firewall cannot block external connections properly. However this is as yet untested on the vista compatible version (7.1)
Kaspersky
(guide produced by astropoint)
Windows Vista compatible
==Tiny== (guide produced by Rampage)
Windows XP and below only
==CA Personal Firewall== (guide produced by Rampage)
Some people seem to have trouble running this firewall on vista. Try Comodo if you experience issues
==Jetico Personal Firewall== (guide produced by itsmonktastic)
Vista Compatible.
Expert firewall
==Norton Personal Firewall== (guide produced by astropoint)
Guide was produced for Norton 2005, but the basic structure of the rules etc hasn't changed so should be applicable to more recent versions.
==Mcafee== (guide produced by 2448-1111)
Warning: This puts the whole of the Resnet into the firewall's "Trusted Zone" which is a really bad idea on the whole. So if somebody comes up with a way of allowing IPs JUST to DC++, pm astro/astropoint and I'll try to update the guide.
Linux
A guide for setting up the Linux firewall, iptables, to block external connections. (produced by xyzzy originally. Resurrected by mooo)
==Mac== (guide produced by Rampage)
A guide for setting up the Mac OS Firewall, ipfw, to block external connections. (Needs testing)
Confirm with an Operator to check that it is working.
==Windows (Vista)== (guide produced by Rampage)
This only applies to the Vista firewall. Please use one of the other firewalls available if you are using XP.
You can either run the commands above, or get the install.bat file below which will run them all at once. So all you need to do is download the scripts right click on the appropriate one and 'run as Administrator'.
Please ask one of the Operators to test that the firewall is working, if it is please PM astro/astropoint or Rampage and this will be finalised. If you have any trouble please contact Rampage on the hub.
If you want to do this from scratch, you need to find how to get your firewall to only allow Resnet IPs (137.205.0.0 - 137.205.254.254 or 137.205.0.0/16 or 137.205.0.0/255.255.0.0) and the loopback address for stunnel (127.0.0.1) and blocking all other IPs from connection. Conversely you could allow all IPs then block 0.0.0.0 - 126.254.254.254, 127.0.0.2 - 137.204.254.254 and 137.206.0.0 - 254.254.254.254 specifically.
Also, if you do this on a firewall not listed here then please contact an op with at least a basic set of instructions to be uploaded here.
If there are any other problems any of the guides themselves, please contact astropoint/astro on the hub or on the forums and I shall try to correct them.
Or, if you feel you can produce a guide for any other firewall, please do so and pass it onto me and I shall upload it onto here.