Question Re: Firewalls

[momoftwins]

There are a few of you who seem to be very computer literate, so I am hoping you can answer my questions. I downloaded the ZoneAlarm firewall noted on the board and it was so easy! These are just curiousity questions:

I downloaded it yesterday and already received 5 alerts (mostly last night). Most of them were from companies that had .net as their extensions and all were from California.

Are all these companies trying to get into or through my computer? Was my ISP # randomly being chosen? Do you ever have the same companies trying to get in? Can they be told to stop?


I know very little about firewalls. So any info would be appreciated.

Thanks and have a graet day.

 

[dmslush]

Well, I will answer what I can. I usually get about 20 alarms a day. I don't even pay any attention to them anymore because I get so many. 80% of them (when I was actually checking to see who they were) are from amazon.com. I honestly don't know WHY they want into the computer, or what they want to do there if they get in. I have never thought about asking them to stop. I'm guessing that they would have to though, couldn't it be considered some form of harrassment?

 

[BigLou]

Zone Alarm is a VERY good firewall for personal use. Just make sure that the programs that you give permission are really needed. For example, if Internet Explorer or Outlook Express want permission to access, you would answer yes, but if Word or Excel want to access, you need to ask yourself "why". Some Trojans, worms, and virus's love to hang out in those type of files.

Most of the "intrusions" you are detecting are quite harmless. If you are running Win 95/98/ME, and are on a dial-up modem, you probably have nothing to worry about. Most hackers want DSL or cable-modem access users, or people who run Unix or WinNT.

A lot of the alerts will be from your ISP who periodically "pings" your address to see if you are still there - if you are not, they can release the IP address to someone else. Also, if you access a web site at the same time someone else has disconnected, the web site may be trying to send something to a TCP port that used to be open. Zone Alarm will alert you to this.

My advice would be to "uncheck" the box that sends an alert pop-up window to your desktop. The firewall is still active, but you will not be interrupted.

Firewalls are needed, but virus protection is more critical. Never open ANY attachment from any email, even if you know the person who sent it, without first checking it for a virus.