Hi Y'all,

I didn't know if to place this as a Firewall subject or a Plesk 7 for windows subject, finally I decided this is a Plesk 7 Issue and should fall under the Plesk Category.

In Plesk 7 for windows there is a built in firwall interface that is using Windows 2003 Server's basic firewall.

The firewall is doing a splending job blocking and stealthing all port save for the needed ports - such as Remote Desktop, and others.
However, it is also closing some needed ports like port 21 used for FTP, it also blocks the server from accessing to websites, if I use the Remote Desktop and try to use the Internet Explorer on the server.

Is there a way to manually configure that firewall such that it will allow for the traffic to go through for the needed ports?

When you use Remote Desktop, use GRC to 'attack' the server and prob it for knowns ports issue. Use the following link and try it with the firewall On and Off and see the results.

https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Choose the All Service Ports as the option to select a scan on the server.

If you leave the scan page on when you have the firewall in the OFF position, you can then try to scan with the Firwall in the ON position.

So,.. repeating my question: how can the firewall be tweaked to override the lock on the FTP port of the server?

-Alon.

Well, if your concern is only FTP, that's not the main problem.
You can simply turn off PASV mode (passive mode) in your ftp application and it should work fine. If you are using Cute FTP go to Edit>Settings>Firewall>PASV.

The main problem is the outgoing of port 80 which will be blocked, and as you said you don't have internet connection from the Remote Desktop. But more important is that the Plesk and Windows Updaters can't connect to their servers. You can't even connect to your Urchin from outside.

I appreciate if anybody can give more information/link for securing Windows 2003 and its firewall.

Cheers,

All Plesk Firewall does is configue RRAS. Just do it manually, that's what I did and life is much easier. There is a tutorial by [Lunch]box on these forums on how to do it.

EDIT: Here it is: http://www.bganet.org/rras/rrassetup.htm

Plesk's firewall didnt even seem to configure rras for me, so I figured it was just a start/stop service for rras and went ahead and configured it manually.