Someone trying to get into my computer?

Thanks, Ron. )

--
In memory of our dear friend, MVP Alex Nichol: http://www.dts-l.org/

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com


"Ron J" wrote in message
...


"Galen" wrote:

In ,
Peaceworks had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Hey Galen,

In short, gotcha, and consider the situation remedied as per your
suggestions.

Sincere thanks,
Terry

I really hate to sound like a donkey but I'm pretty anal when it comes to
security, security is a process and not an application. I can only hope
that
every computer user will understand that at some point and I don't mean
you
specifically. I have real problems with ZoneAlarm and those problems are
mine and mine alone. You are free to use ANY software firewall you're
willing/able to use but please, for your own sake take the time to insure
you've made the settings fit your usage. While ZA may not be specifically
any less capable (they just recently started checking components to
insure
that the running process was indeed the original starting application
where
you could make any application named a trusted application access the
internet before) than the other available options it is indeed easier
than
most but you seem to be capable. This? This is a compliment. It takes
work
and dedication to dig out the newsgroups, add them, and opt to use them.
You
seem interested in security as a process and not just sitting idle and
clicking the box when ZA warns you. My problem goes back to a marketing
choice with ZA where they completely disabled the ability for free users
to
turn off automatic updates and then foisted numerous malfunctioning (and
not
worthy of even beta status never mind release candidate) releases on
end-users. I have a number of issues with denial as well but please do
read
on. As far as I know ZA, as a product, is an acceptable solution though I
do
not and will never recommend their software until they've made changes in
their marketing practices. Again, that is my problem and mine alone. My
posts, the initial, secondary, and now tertiary, are meant to help you to
secure your computer and to understand the traffic warning that you're
seeing. They are not meant to bash a specific product but rather to
decypher
the problem and give an answer accordingly.

If you're even more curious and, for example, you're not even on a
LAN/WAN
then you could consider checking running processes and services to see
what's running. Have you file and print sharing enabled? Do you have a
wireless network? Where is this traffic coming from and what is it doing?
Are the other PCs set to index networked drives? That sort of thing is
where
I'd start to debug this issue but in 99.999% of these cases it's
legitimate
traffic doing what it's supposed to do and being erroniously blocked by
the
software firewall and YES this even happens with my beloved Outpost until
I've debugged it or configured it properly. So, again, the problems with
ZA
are mine and mine to hold. You can use any application you want provided
you
use it wisely. Your posts show that you are doing so. My posts are only
meant to show you why this is being reported.

Enough said? Carry this down to the TCP/IP packet at the lowest level?
I'm
willing to share AND learn from your experiences. I don't use ZA but I'm
almost willing to try it again now that I've heard a number of good
things
about it's recent changes and functionality. I like easy and simple... ZA
provides that for the AVERAGE user but in the process of doing so it
tries
to show it's working and this scares anyone who is alert to the messages
it
pops up and doesn't understand the stacks or IP at a level beyond my
comprehension. Me? Personally? I know just enough to know I don't know
anything

Galen
--
Signature changed for a moment of silence.
Rest well Alex and we'll see you on the other side.

Hello Galen,
For what it is worth, I am in total agreement with you on ZA.
It
used to be
a great firewall but after the freedownload become some popular, hackers
became better at configureing it than the users. I have spoke with guys
from
Check Point ( the company that owns ZA) at the RSA Expo . Although Check
Point owns it control of it has been given to Brouderbund (excuse my
misspelling). The people there are aware of the problem but it has not
hurt
sells, so don't look for any improvements soon. I hate saying this, I
have
made friends there, but the truth is the truth. Best of luck to all.
ps: welcome back Kelly, the group is not the same without you
Ron J

In ,
Kelly had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Missing, Galen? I don't work this group. )

I downloaded, installed, paid for, and configured ZA Pro because I figured
that I'd be better off learning about it. As you'd not been working the
group lately (I don't even know WHERE I'd posted that) you surely missed
that event. Anyhow, it's now no longer installed but it felt different to be
using a product other than Outpost. It was just plain freaky to see an empty
(to me) taskbar and have all the silly prompts come up. I set it up as
default which I figured most users would do. I let it run that way for a
while before I configured it more to my liking. Now it's still installed but
disabled and OP is back up and running. I dare say that it was one of the
most annoying applications I've ever used.

Galen
--
Signature changed for a moment of silence.
Rest well Alex and we'll see you on the other side.