Questions about ICMP

[Gordon Messmer]

Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
> 
> So... am I to read this as it is a good idea to disable all icmp
> requests?  I get a LOT of ICMP requests from the Internet probing
> at my ports, which are disabled.  This is a good idea?

That's impossible.  UDP ports can only be tested by UDP packets, and TCP 
ports can only be tested by TCP packets.  ICMP is a different IP 
protocol which doesn't feature numbered ports.  As such, blocking ICMP 
won't prevent port scans, it'll just prevent some of your own outbound 
connections from working properly.