That Steve Gibson guy is a genius!
As many of you will have gathered, I detest Firewalls. I've tried all the freebies and several paid for (cough) Firewalls. Every time I do a clean install I try another. I am so desperate not to use one, I often disable my firewall and go to Gibson's site to take the tests, hoping for a miracle, but the results read as grief stricken.
I was looking at the site again tonight and was surprised to find that Stevie boy, although a self-confessed fan of Firewalls, actually belongs to the line of thought that they are not essentially necessary for a standalone PC with no file or printer sharing.
If you have no immediate need to share your files with any other computer ? local or remote ? the safest, cleanest, and simplest solution is the "unbinding" of Windows insecure networking client from your network. And you should ABSOLUTELY do this even if you plan to get a firewall . . . mine or someone else's.
He then "advertises" his own free Firewall that will so be available but goes on to say:
It should be noted, however, that using a prophylactic program (like a firewall) to suppress the operation of another (like Microsoft's Networking) is not nearly as safe and sane as removing the program whose operation and behavior you wish to suppress.
Having read all that, I then spent a hour reading, digesting and then unbinding the network client. With my Firewall off, I then took the tests. Here are the results for the Test My Shields tests:
Preliminary Internet connection refused!
This is extremely favorable for your system's overall Windows File and Printer Sharing security. Most Windows systems, with the Network Neighborhood installed, hold the NetBIOS port 139 wide open to solicit connections from all passing traffic. Either this system has closed this usually-open port, or some equipment or software such as a "firewall" is preventing external connection and has firmly closed the dangerous port 139 to all passersby. (Congratulations!)
Unable to connect with NetBIOS to your computer.
All attempts to get any information from your computer have FAILED. (This is very uncommon for a Windows networking-based PC.) Relative to vulnerabilities from Windows networking, this computer appears to be VERY SECURE since it is NOT exposing ANY of its internal NetBIOS networking protocol over the Internet.
I might try Gibson's own Firewall when it's released.
