Zone Alarm Blocked intrusion help

albertross_2

Zonealarm is not obsessed, it it just reporting what it is blocking, as any firewall does..

threebutts

I agree, Alechjo. Microsoft antispyware should protect you if anything gets through and it's free. I use it with zone alarm and avg antivirus (free edition).

Skyhigh

Please do not use the MS 'Antispyware'.

It won't be free for much longer, a certain MS employee said that they will soon start charging for updates (in the form of a subscription).
Plus it doesn't pick up all 'spyware' (or software classed as spyware) - specifically Microsofts spyware...

Zonealarm is probably the best out there at the moment, backed up with AVG, Spybot and Adaware.

peter_the_piper

Nortons used to get umpteen attempts until I got a Wireless/modem/router. I now really look if I get one its so rare. I'll be dumping Nortons soon when the subscription runs out, their system is so iffy.

Terry_D

albertross wrote:

If you are on broadband, buy a router, for about £40, you'll never see an alert again, as it will block them before they get to your PC.

All software firewalls can be disabled by malware, if you get an infection of some sort.. hardware firewalls are better, but I'd use the software one as well..

I use a Netgear DSL Modem/Router with the free version of Zone Alarm. I have 3 PCs on a wired LAN and everything is hunky dorry. Haven't gone wireless yet as I'm not convinced about security - I have a wireless iPaq PDA and when I switch the wireless on it ON it tells me about all my neighbour's Networks! :eek:

Regards

NastyMatt

Laurie - a port scan is the basics of an attack. What happens is some one will see if your ip address is live. If it returns a yes they will then scan your ports to see which are enabled.

Once they know which are enabled it will then give them a clue as to which possible attacks they could use... i.e. if port 139 was live they may be able to use a netbios hack.

So a scan is just that.. a scan.. it's not an attack.

Think of it as some one has come to your house and tried to open each door by turning the handle. If your doors are locked you are fine.

Darksun

NastyMatt wrote:

Laurie - a port scan is the basics of an attack.

Often these can be automatic, by 'zombie' machines trying to spread viruses (and if they find a vunerable machine, they send the virus to that machine).

Sometimes they're not even attacks at all. Blueyonder regularily scans users to ensure their machines arn't vunerable, running open mail relays or whatever, and I guess other ISPs do aswell. IRC and other servers sometimes do this aswell, to check you're a genuine user and not connecting through an open proxy.

christie_m

Add a password to the Firewall software you've got installed (a few products offer this feature) and this will stop any Malware from adding itself to the rulebase without your knowledge.

Router also helps to deflect this rubbish.

Run a regular Shieldsup scan through https://www.grc.com

All this paranoia keeps the IT security vendors in business

fatheralice

Zonealarm actually trys to connect out now, with the latset version - buried in the T & C s - I get a message from it saying it has been blocked every so often, but as stated a hardware firewall does the job now, so ZA is just a backup.

No one seems to know why ZA should want to send data out, but do a search on google next time you get the message, with the ip address, and it might enlighten you!

squirri

Another one I like is Spybot, Search & Destroy, Free
MS Anti-Spyware is now called Windows Defender(still beta until Vista comes out). Free, if you pass the windows validation test

As a genral point - it's a very good idea to avoid websites that offer to do a free virus / spyware scan on your PC - they genrally infect you.

Finally, take a look at https://www.siteadvisor.com - this has a really neat plugin for IE / Firefox(works on a Mac too) that tells you whether a site does unannounced downloads, has links to bad sites or will swamp you with e-mails