[BBLISA] Question about Network analysis tools

[Douglas Alan]

Eric Smith <eric.smith at ascentialsoftware.com> wrote:

>      I wondered about that statement too.  So I did a little web
> searching.  The first site I found about grc & Shields Up! was this
> one:
> 
> http://www.grcsucks.com/
> 
>      which led me to this one:
> 
> http://blog.netwarriors.org/d/musings/misc/2002/10/30/shieldsup_analyzed
> 
>      It looks like this person used a packet sniffer to see what
> exactly Shields Up! does.  And it also comments on the language used
> on grc.com, which I would agree is really inappropriate (to much
> self-importance and hype.)  I didn't realize that Shields Up! did as
> little as it did. Almost not worth using.

I think that all of this is nothing but a lot of sound and fury.
Apparently the Shields Up! guy annoys a lot of people with his excessive
verbiage and self-aggrandizement.  So, what?  I have the ability to
ignore all this and use his web-site as the simple port-scanner that it
is.  I put no more weight into what it tells me than I should from the
results of a simple port-scanner.

Does HackerWacker do more exhaustive tests?  I do not know -- their
website requires you to give them your email address, and I hate doing
that in this day and age.  (Though I suppose I could easily give them a
for-spam-only one, I typically hit "back" on the browser as soon as I
see any nuisance requirement to register.)

|>oug