Is there software besides a firewall which would hide open ports?

i think by definition you are asking for a firewall.

what about hardware, say a router?

If someone used a router a firewall isnt needed?

Depends on the router.

well it depends. you said you wanted to hide open ports, with a NAT Router outsiders generally cannot see any 'details' about your internal network they can only see the router.

however a router generally will not provide application filtering and stop your computer from leaking if it was hijacked in some manner say by a trojan.

a combination of the two is a good defense. I personally just use my NAT SPI Router. Although I like Kaspersky IS6 and sometimes Winpooch because its a light and simple firewall.

dirtwarrior Some routers have a built in firewalls, personally i prefer them cause they save my machines resources, check your router manual to see if it have a built in firewall or not.

I have a router based Internet connection.....believe me you can't rely on NAT and its firewall .....you still need some ordinary firewall for complete protection in a windows system

I personally use IPCop. Look it up, definately worth checking out!

hide open ports?

Question: what use do they have if they are OPEN, but HIDDEN?

Why not just close them?

GL

All very good suggestions thanks

I just want to mention about something here, there is two options in most of firewalls its dynamic port open vs static port open, in the dynamic case firewall just open the port when a specified program asking for that which is more secure in static port open the firewall keep tbe port open in all cases which is less secure and it can be detected by port scanners.

I just want to mention about something here, there is two options in most of firewalls its dynamic port open vs static port open, in the dynamic case firewall just open the port when a specified program asking for that which is more secure in static port open the firewall keep tbe port open in all cases which is less secure and it can be detected by port scanners.

^ copy and paste error?

^^ I think it was a flitch in the matrix.

As far as I understand it ports are big open spaces full of ocean water. It would be very difficult to hide, and all the little boats would have no place to go.

Just close all the unused ports if you're not behind a NAT router or firewall.

Unless you've got hardware that monitors both incoming and outgoing packets, it's recommended by Steve Gibson (Windows Security Guru) that you use a software firewall (or other means of monitoring outgoing packets) along with your hardware firewall. This is because even though the incoming packets are being monitored, anything you intentionally download that may potentially contain malware of some sort may send outgoing calls to a "home server" or something, the router will not protect against that, whereas a software firewall would. I use Outpost Firewall and it's the best software firewall I've seen. Not free, but it works!