Port 80 closed on webserver; Allowed MS ports for UPDATES-no luck

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ravichandran Mahalingam
  • Start date Start date
R

Ravichandran Mahalingam

we are having many webservers and since it is a security risk to have
port 80 open (hackers can use our ports for hacking other sites and we
might be blamed)we have closed it.

1. to get micrsoft updates, we periodically open the port 80 for 30
minutes to go to the web. this is a manual process. this a security
risk for those 30 minutes.

2. to automate this process and reduce the security risks, we tried to
list all the IP addresses used by microsoft's update (as they showed
up at the bottom of the IE) to be added to the firewall software to
allow the webservers to go and get the updates from MS.

3. FINALLY, AS expected - somethign funny happened - it is accessing
www.msn.com without images and color but not the update server.

4. at the bottom of the ie, it is trying to open
v4.microsoftupdate.... and we get a page not found error.

at one time, in one of the tech net meetings, I requested that they
have the updates 'download'able for situations explained above. they
told us a 'long story' as to why they could not make it simple enough
for downloads.

any readers who had this similar problem - any suggestions/ideas.

thanks and regards
Ravi Mahalingam.
Columbia, SC.
 
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