Difference between Filtered vs Closed Ports

Often during Nmap scanning techniques, you will find the port state as either open or filtered

PORT      STATE    SERVICE
22/tcp    open     ssh
443/tcp   open     https
1024/tcp  filtered kdm
1084/tcp  filtered ansoft-lm-2
1863/tcp  filtered msnp
3128/tcp  open     squid-http
3333/tcp  filtered dec-notes
4900/tcp  filtered hfcs
9943/tcp  filtered unknown
30000/tcp open     unknown
38292/tcp filtered landesk-cba
40911/tcp filtered unknown
52673/tcp filtered unknown

What exactly is the difference between two ?

• Closed Port: If you send a SYN to a closed port, it will respond back with a RST.
• Filtered Port: Presumably, the host is behind some sort of firewall. Here, the packet is simply dropped and you receive no response (not even a RST).
• Open Port: If you send a SYN to an open port, you would expect to receive SYN/ACK.