Topic: Newbie & New Servergateway - Private install questions..

[Neophyte]

Hi All

I'm a first time user of SME & Linux newbie, so go easy on me  

I downloaded, burnt & installed SME a couple of days ago. I chose Servergateway - private, it lists it out as servergateway - private in the review configuration tab of server-manager. I am running the web server for internal lan use only, with virtual servers - NON to be viewable from the internet. I do not, & didn't ask for an smtp server, although I do need to check POP email from Outlook.

When I did a Shields up probe, it found ports 25 (SMTP), 80 (HTTP), 113 (IDENT) & 443 (HTTPS) all OPEN.

I've done a search of the forum & found numerous posts, but there seems to be so many answers & opinions, I don't know whats safe, & what isn't? Why are all these ports open when I asked for a private server gateway? I've checked the remote access tab on server-manager & there are no entries under remote management, secure shell is set to no access, PPTP has 0 clients & ftp is set to no access. Before using SME I tried ClarkGateway & had the same setup, when I tried that at Shields up it returned everything as stealth?

This is a fresh install, with no patches, updates or tinkering carried out. The only thing I've done is setup 3 virtual servers for use on the internal Lan & port forward a few ports for eMule & BitTorrent, apart from that, it's a stock install.

Secondly, my internal Lan has four PC's, all static IP's, my internet connection is via a cable modem & DCHP. That all works, apart from MSN, I know there are problems with MSN & video/voice & files downloading. But, with SME if more than one person on the Lan uses MSN, the other users begin to log off by themsleves. This never happened with my Linksys router, or ClarkConnect, any ideas/fixes?

Thanks in advance  

PS
Is there a real Newb's guide to using the update script, you know, a Dummies guide