router/firewall

[stevenf13]

I'm going to open an Internet Cafe. So I've been talking to the local cable internet provider. He is telling me that they can see each computer I have connected to the cable modem even if I have a router with a built in firewall. Is this possible?

[MIKWIZ]

check on the firewall to see what ports you have open, un-nessacary open ports give information away about your network, who makes the firewall or was it supply by cable company?

[stevenf13]

The router is a Linksys BEFSR11. It was not supplied by the cable company. Thanks

[weazel]

with the router in place you will only have 1 external ip address and if all the ports are closed to incoming traffic they shouldn't be able to see anything except the router as far as I know

[I.R. Admin]

He has made the one fundamental mistake that all lamers make, by telling you that he can "see" or break into systems (not implying that he is a lamer). Anyone with an IQ can probe the net for systems, but 99.9% of them either give away the fact that they are probing or they leave 'footprints' behind.
How is he going to see your boxes? Ping, tracing the route? Clever boy!
If you know your stuff, you can configure your firewall/proxy/routers well enough to keep him busy for a long time trying.
There is a major difference between ping-ing a system and establishing a session to it (to state the obvious).

[KWB Teck]

[quote]Originally posted by Weazel:
<strong>with the router in place you will only have 1 external ip address and if all the ports are closed to incoming traffic they shouldn't be able to see anything except the router as far as I know</strong><hr></blockquote>

As Weazel so properly pointed out I doubt it. That is unless you allow their techs to install any software they may use to route traffic through your router when they set it up. They shouldn't need to install any software for your connection to work properly. Although some service providers do and then tell you it's to help troubleshoot any connection problems you might have.