Several folks complained about my 10 minute firewall article. They tried to run what I'd provided, and it failed. This was because they tried to copy/paste exactly the commands I provided. I intentionally left my code crippled . . .
Several folks complained about my 10 minute firewall article. They tried to run what I'd provided, and it failed. This was because they tried to copy/paste exactly the commands I provided. I intentionally left my code crippled by using bogus IP addresses and host names. Let me first provide two reasons why this is a good idea, and then I'll explain how you can (and should) do the same in all your writing.

Many times when you're asking for help on public mailing lists or newsgroups it is helpful to provide information about your network setup. For example if you're trying to configure your firewall to pass packets back into your internal network on specific ports, you would want to be able to show the actual IP addresses or host names involved.

Unfortunately, any attacker who is targeting you or your organisation can read these posts and learn sensitive information about your network which can make an attack easier. I could expound on this, but it should seem pretty evident. The less info you provide an attacker, the more work it will take to mount a successful attack.

For this reason, it's very good to provide fake info instead.