Let's continue where we left off by taking a closer look at /etc/inetd.conf. Remember that inetd is the internet super-server which listens for requests on behalf of other daemons; it reads /etc/inetd.conf to determine which ports you wish it to listen on. You should always comment out the lines which represent the daemons you don't wish people to make network connections to. A good general rule is that if you don't know what a daemon does, comment it out.
On my system, inetd is listening for IPV4 connection requests for the following daemons: ftp, telnet, comsat, ntalk, and tftp. I don't intend to maintain a tftp or ftp server, and I'm not totally convinced that I need to provide comsat or ntalk services. However, I do need to telnet into my FreeBSD system on occasion. So, I'll become the superuser, open up /etc/inetd.conf using the vi editor, and add comment characters to the four lines that represent the daemons on whose behalf I don't want inetd to listen. When I'm finished, that portion of my /etc/inetd.conf file will look like
News: Server Security
