If a developer or vendor cannot tell you what ports and protocols their software uses it is time to re-evaluate how much you need their software.

In most companies of any size that I have been involved with an application portfolio would need to list the ports and services that it would use.

You could also turn off the firewall, run nmap against the system and see what ports are open. Ask the developers what their application uses from the ports discovered and then turn the firewall on again. Then block what you don't need and open what you do. Yeah, it's a pain in the ass, but not every machine inside your network is always going to play nice with everyone else, so firewalls on important systems are needed.

Hell, I'm a lot slower than I used to be.

Wonder where I can get a firmware upgrade?

VPN to an admin workstation in the DMZ. That admin workstation will of course be on the access list.

Or you could run a virtual firewall (running an Open VPN client to your main firewall) and admin station inside your laptop and tunnel from your workstation to your firewall.

There are a ton of ways to do this depending on the time and options you have access to.

Firewall. Whitelist. Limit access to SSH to systems on the whitelist.

No need to block entire countries - just allow SSH access to those systems that need it.

Now, if you want to talk about blocking access to your web or mail server from anyone in East Elbonia, then you can implement a package like Country Block, or use a service like this one, depending on your firewall.

The lesson from this? Restrict access to important services via a whitelist, block access to public services with a deny list.

I wonder if any of these farmer-sailors were growing spinach and eating olive oil...

I also lay aside all ideas of any new works or engines of war, the invention of which long-ago reached its limit, and in which I see no hope for further improvement... - Sextus Julius Frontinus, governor of Britania, 84 C.E.

Mathematics is inadequate to describe the universe, since mathematics is an abstraction from natural phenomena. Also, mathematics may predict things which don't exist, or are impossible in nature. - Ludovico delle Colombe

The abolishment of pain in surgery is a chimera. It is absurd to go on seeking it... Knife and pain are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in the consciousness of the patient. - Dr. Alfred Velpeau

When the Paris Exhibition closes electric light will close with it and no more be heard of. - Erasmus Wilson

This `telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a practical form of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. - Western Union internal memo, 1878

Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia. - Dr. Dionysus Lardner

That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced. - Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909.

There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will. - Albert Einstein

Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. - Lord Kelvin, 1895

There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home. - Kenneth Olsen, president and founder of Digital Equipment Corp

Now Skynet has bombers!

If you can, watch The Inner Light. It is about the only episode of ST:TNG I will watch whenever it is available.

Apples and oranges - there is a difference between killing those that you are certain beyond any doubt are trying to kill you and killing those that you are sure only beyond a reasonable doubt killed someone else.

I too would prefer the guilty walk free over the innocent being condemned to death. This has nothing to do with the crime, but rather the punishment. I would rather imprison every convicted murderer for life rather than execute one innocent person.

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends." - Gandalf, The Lord of The Rings

February 2014 was the 21st warmest February on record since 1880. The temperature was yet again above the 20th century average, for the 348th consecutive month. That is every month above the 20th century average for the last 29 years. Please, tell me just how you determined the temperature is going down?

Yes, there is.

Alex, what is "Lack of sufficient free oxygen to react with"?

That "Obamafone" program that you are referring to was actually started during the Reagan Administration. Kinda hard for something that happened in the nineties to predate that...

I hereby sell my soul to Satan for a bag (let's be specific here - biggest size currently available, not a snack size) of Cheetos. Also included in this deal are the souls of everyone in my family.

Now let's see if my fingers turn orange...