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Is your computer vulnerable to hackers?

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Scott Frodsham

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I'm not sure how many people are running personal firewalls but if you'd like to check your vulnerability to hackers you can go to www.testmysecurity.com. This site will run some checks and offer advice. There is freeware available on the net, Zonealarm, free personal firewall is a good example.

Hope this is of use to somebody.

Regards,

Scott.
 
To be honest these days I'd advise everyone to use a firewall. It's a bit of software that sits between your PC & the Internet that checks all data coming in & leaving your PC. You set it up to allow or refuse connection attempts depending on what application program is trying to transfer data, which Internet site is involved, what type of traffic it is etc. You'll be amazed at traffic coming in & leaving your PC...

Zone Alarm is quite a good Firewall but it can be a bit confusing to set up and can be difficult to get rid of if you decide you don't want it any more. None of the Firewalls are particularly easy to set up. On a couple of the PC's here I use Sygate Personal Firewall from www.sygate.com - that's fairly easy to use & understand what's happening. It's also free.
 
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Hi Nigel

I down loaded the Sygate fire wall a few days ago, it took about 20 mins to download but is realy easy to use and almost sets it's self up.

I was suprised how many times in the first day that unautherised addresses tried to access my computer, 1 USA address tried 20 times in one afternoon to access my computer? I had no idea who the person was!.

That made me wonder how many times people have had access to my system before that I never knew about? :0 (I feel so violated :p )

I would definatly recomend that people try the Sygat firewall.
 
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There are other sites for checking security etc.

I like http://grc.com and the shields-up page.

As for attempted entries to access your PC this is a misinterpretation of the results. I cannot explain clearly, I am a dumb blonde :) but it is not malicious attempts just normal surfing activity.

I cleared my Zonealarm stats yesterday and note there are now 40 logs on Zonealarm. If I were looking all the time I would be scared but keep the logs out opf sight and I dont worry as I knwo zonealarm works.

Good firewalls, good virus software and safe practices ie not opening attachments on emails make for safer surfing. Also keepin away from Garden Gates email software helps!

Dawn
 
How much do these things cost, I have just paid out for more protection, it all seems a bit costly ???
 
I look after one companies network system & installed Zone Alarm there a couple of years ago. When they are connected to the Internet they get about 1 attempt every 30 seconds to connect to their shared network drive i.e. port 137. As you say Dawn a lot of the activity is for legitimate reasons but a lot of it isn't - it's frightning looking at the access logs. A lot of the attempts I saw last week originated from Russia or the Far East.

If you should have any of your PC drives shared you MUST have a Firewall or the drives WILL be accessed in no time at all. As you say the Shields Up software is useful.

People should also try and keep their operating system files up to date - particularly web browser & email client. There are frequent security patches to these and almost all of the email viruses about make use of security holes in them - as soon as a hole is found Microsoft will issue a fix. Keeping on top of those fixes significantly reduces the chances of you being hit.

Karen - Sygate Firewall is free for personal use & the Shields Up test is free - so no excuse there :)
 
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Karen

Zonealarm is free for personal use.

Download from http://www.zonealarm.com go to downloads and scroll to the bottom of the page.

This is the free version. You can pay for more protection but mainly for a home pc this should be enough. Unless you are really neurotic.

There are updates available whcih again are fOC.

Alternatively become an anorak and buy something like .NET magazine which usually has a version on its free disc along with other 'useful' (OR not!!) software.

If you dont have up to date virus software try AVG at http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_downl.htm it is free, updateable and gets good reviews.

Dawn
 
Thanks for that Dawn, it seems quite easy.

I am bang up to date with virus protection after getting a dose of Sircam :angry: Im a bit dim when it comes to all this stuff, perhaps because I dont use it all that much. Im ok with the photography stuff cos I use that for work but as far as the internet goes I am far too trusting to imagine anyone would want to steal anything, stupid I know!!
 
We also have norton antivirus, which is good as it scans e-mails as well and automaticaly updates to protect against new viruses.
 
i have used zone alarm for a number of years and found it great

i also use trend PC_cillin which have been worth its weight in gold the last few months as theres virises about all over at the moment :angry:
 
Well I should of know better but I removed the Syngate fire wall about 2 months back! and for the past 3 weeks I have been realy plagued with pop ups when i'm on the net.

these pop ups range from earn £?? working from home to loads of porn sites (some good?) I contacted Freeserve and they ran a check and e/mailed me back to say that I didn't have any firewall and I was being hacked through port???? and that I should download a firewall straight away.

Scott F also sent me a download ~ pop-up stopper which stopped the pop ups but didn't block them accessing my computer but it also stops those pop ups when you open freeserve ect so well worth loading just for the peice it gives.

so i've now re-loaded Syngate firewall and i'm now safe again. (but can I find them porn sites now! :( )
 
I have the norton firewall - bought the whole Internet security package last year and sure glad I did:)

WEndy
 
I had a virus on my pc in January, i did not have a firewall, actually i didn't know about them( how daft can u get :angry: ) well i asked a few friends from k9 to help me out and after being up all night on the pc with one of Dee's friends i eventually got the dam thing off scuse my swearing, i now have a firewall called Zone Alarm which was recomended by John M.... it is very good....... :D
 
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our firwall and Anti Virus software packages are very important, I have just got software to stop all "spam E Mails" ( strangely enough it is called Spam Inspector) it automatically sends mails to your deleted folder that you have not set up as a Friend.

Great stuff no more special offers on slimming pils and other stuff :D
 
I have Norton 2002 AV as my anti virus software that stops everything in that department, I get a viras at least once a week from an unknown souce called the administrator virus luckyly it's never got onto my computer but I don't know what harm it would do if it did? :angry:
 
Ha more than 24 hours and no pop ups, the pop up stopper has done the job

it can be downloaded from pop-up stopper

Thants Scott for the link. :)
 
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