Do ports still do, or are they still useful for, what they were originally intended? Or would it be better to just have a single "port" and everything going in or out has to identify itself? If I were a web host and found someone using this utility, I might point out that if I wanted people to have shell I'd offer it. All these hacks are just a way to get through the port everyone leaves open. Maybe it's time to just put everything on one port and figure out a way to identify the actual services being requested.


As in, we're back at square one. Ports are "a way to identify the actual services being requested," in the original sense of handing packets to appropriate handlers. I've never been a fan of architectural redesign to address what appears to me to be a policy issue. Maybe it's time to block port 80.