> > I'm confused. Is "That's good news!" your notation or did that display > with the test. It seems your box wasn't analyzed. > Sorry this did not come across clearly. That was _not_ my editorial comment; that was what the website put out in large green font, quoted again below: > > > >THE EQUIPMENT AT THE TARGET IP ADDRESS > >DID NOT RESPOND TO OUR UPnP PROBES! > >(That's good news!) > > But the above only says "UPnP probes, whatever that happens to be. > You should be receiving an analysis of your first 1,056 ports. Each > port should be reported as open, closed, or stealth. That message > indicates to me ShieldsUP! isn't analyzing your box. > I was expecting something more verbose, as you are suggesting. That did not happen. My forwarded ports are upwards of 10000, on purpose, so they would not be probed. If it is just a port-scan, I do not know how useful it is for somebody like me. Any attempt to penetrate the DSL modem would have to be exploiting some vanurability of the firmware, or a "back door" of the hardware (say, some strange sequence of ICMP -ping- packets that triggers a back door to open). This is part of the reason why I have a router sitting behind the modem, i.e. to have another layer that needs to be pentrated. The inner router is running some embedded linux and is pretty good at providing report logs, which are emailed to an internal email account on a box that is sitting behind the second router. I have had only one scare in several years where I did not know where some connections were going, but maybe I have got lucky overall. I am especially paranoid on the hardware backdoors being in place. There was a very interesting 2-minute long segment on NPR/MPR yesterday morning around 8:30am where a journalist was asking "Alexa" about a government agency, and the final question (and I quote) was: "Alexa, are you connected to the ...?" The software did not respond with anything audible, and the other journalist's commentary was: "That must be Alexa's version of 'no comment'." Welcome to 1984. What a surreal feeling to be thinking of books like 1984 looking like "history" and funny films like Idiocracy looking like "documentaries." Or maybe I am just way to old and cynical... Most young people among my colleauges have no concern whatsoever for all that we find out is fact when it comes to our digital presense being captured and scrutinized. That fact on people bothers me more than the fact that my digital existence is being scrutinized. I just received my "I support encryption" shirt from EFF. Donate $100 and get yours. It is money well spent.