> Herbert Graf wrote:
>
> >        To be frank, and this is only personal opinion, I would
> NEVER exposed a
> >windows machine to the net, ESPECIALLY with this sort of feature enabled.
> >There are FAR more secure ways. TTYL
> >
> >
> >
> Thanks for sharing your personal opinion, but I'd be interested in
> hearing the top two or three "FAR more secure ways."

        Offhand? VPN would be tops, ssh tunnel would be next, a good ftp server
would probably be third.

> I have had a
> Windows XP machine exposed directly to the internet for a couple of
> years and so far have had no problems.  In fact I had the web server
> "aaoooga!" each time a code red worm HTTP request was received.

        You have been lucky. Considering the sheer abundance of exploits for
windows in the past, serious exploits that grant complete control to the
attacker, I'd NEVER leave a windows box exposed to the live net. You can
patch as much as you like, until an exploit is discovered that doesn't have
a patch, then your machine may be toast. The risk is simply too great for
me. TTYL

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