How can I “stealth” ports on my computer? A: Stealthing is overrated.
For a home user, having closed ports should be more than adequate security. In general, a closed port means that when asked by another computer, your computer or firewall sends a reply that the port being accessed is closed and then closes the connection to your computer. A “stealthed” port means that when asked, your firewall makes no reply and waits for the other computer to “time out” or give up that particular connection. Some web sites advocate configuring your firewall to “stealth” the ports on your computer with the idea that your computer will be invisible to a hacker or that the hacker will have a harder time getting useful information about your computer. However, just as astronomers can see black holes in space by seeing the lack of light and other radiation coming from that area, clever hackers can sometimes get useful information about the firewall or the network behind a firewall by using the stealthing feature.
