Zonealarm

[wazzat]

Hi,

I downloaded the free version of ZoneAlarm. My ports have been hit over 60 times in the last ten minutes. I have the DNS addresses of those doing the hitting. Is there a website I can go to where I can find out who these addresses are associated with? Any way to associate these addresses with names?

Thanks, Bill

[azscary]

Click START>RUN and type NSLOOKUP. This is built into most Windows OS. It will look up either IP address' (207.169.56.112) or by URL (www.whateverthesite.com) and report back to you. I don't know if it will work through Zone Alarm or not.

[azscary]

By the way, have you noticed the large amount of POPUP ads on this PCMECH web site? That could be the source of the port hits.I installed Popup Stopper to kill the little &@!**$^&^#&.

[wazzat]

Thanks azscary. I tried the Start/Run/nslookup thing but got a "file not found" message. Maybe Win ME doesn't have that capability.

Yes, I've noticed the little popup ads everywhere but when I was getting hammered I wasn't on this website. In fact, I don't think I was on any website at all, just preparing to check e-mail. I might give Popup Stopper a try though. Bill

[wazzat]

Azscary, thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I did a Google search for "DNS lookup" and came up with a couple websites that will look up DNS address owners for you. One was http://www.bankes.com/nslookup.htm. I looked up a bunch of DNS's that are hammering my ports and they are located in Germany, Netherlands, Italy and several other places. Very interesting, though not necessarily harmful. ZoneAlarm is doing its job for sure. I never realized that so much is coming in to my computers from the Internet without me knowing it.

Thanks again, Bill

P.S. ZoneAlarm has stopped 196 probes since my first post earlier this evening.

[Mick K]

You can download VisualZone Report Utility from here

http://www.visualizesoftware.com/

It is a free utility to use with Zonealarm and will give you all kinds of info on the offending parties.

[azscary]

Glad I could help Bill.:D

[wazzat]

Thanks Mick, I appreciate the info. I'll download it right now.
Bill

[wazzat]

Mick, I downloaded and installed Visual Zone. Terrific program. I don't understand how programs like Visual Zone and ZoneAlarm can be offered for free.

Thanks again, Bill

[waiting]

Normally, you don't get something for nothing. So why is Zone Alarm Free>?

[SARGE]

With ZA, you actually are getting something for nothing. No shipping and handling fees involved, etc. Give folks a taste of what you have, maybe they will then purchase your main product; in their case, Zone Alarm Pro. Good business practice.

[waiting]

Sarge: About 6 months ago I asked the same question to ZoneAlarm and also to
Norton Firewall.........Zone Alarm informed me that they were too overloaded to answer my question. I would have to wait for Zone Alarm.......

Norton's Firewall answered my question promptly. I bought Norton's Firewall....humm......how about that.

[reboot]

Wanna know something else? Sygate Personal is better than both the above, and it's free.

[SARGE]

boot, better how? My Lexus is better than your Cadillac better, or better protection? Seriously, for someone who has no protection, something beats nothing. However, since I'm fixing to get dsl, whether necessary or not, I'll probably move on up the food chain to better than plain ZA, unless you can explain how Sygate Personal is better. I've used it and ZA and always felt protected.

[Simfal]

I used ZA free version for about 10 months, then bought the ZA Pro version ($39.95). It also incorporates a mailscan facility which stopped many viruses and bugs before NAV got a lookin. However, I got hacked. Some swine deposited a program called 'Placebo' within an FTP folder that I was testing. They just walked right in through ZA Pro! :mad:

I used for quite a while after that Personal Tiny Firewall from tinysoftware.com. You can lock down ports much beter than with ZA. It did the job without hitches. :cool:

I have now moved on up to a hardware firewall, but that's another story...:D

[pcoopers]

Dumb question:

If several firewalls use different approaches to securing your machine, is it possible to combine two firewalls, to cover each one's deficiency?

Probly not, they'll interfere with each other, but, I have had two virus scanners running on the same machine at the same time. (wife had McAfee installed, and I installed Ontrack right beside it) I didn't realize for days what I had done, if there were any probs at all, maybe the machine ran a little slower on the net. I have a POTS connection, it's so slow to start with, I couldn't be sure.

Any expert opinions?

[pcoopers]

Try looking at grc.com, I have a little utility called leaktest which assures me that it can't get out of my computer, they also have an online utility to test if they can get into your computer.

The online thing tells me that I'm invisible to the net, if a hacker wants me, he has to look for me. If you have open ports that your firewall isn't closing, it's like trying to keep the rain out with a screen door.

I'm not sure why I'm invisible, all I have done is to get all the updates for Win98SE, and installed Zone alarm. I refuse all attempts that do occur, and I've cleaned out all spyware, and cookies that I was uncertain of.

[Simfal]

I have considered using two firewalls at the same time, but have not yet tried it.

I used the 'Leaktest' at GRC.com prior to being hacked with Placebo. Although Leaktest indicated that I was not visible I still got compromised.

PTF eradicated that problem but if you wish to go further, you can install a hardware firewall which is much better. Mine cost around £100.00.

[pcoopers]

The thing about being invisible, it only works if you're invisible the first time a hacker looks at you. If he looks, and can see you, then you disappear, he'll wonder about that, and look harder. Ports hanging open invited attention, I suppose you read the documents at GRC.

I can't afford a hardware firewall, the wife would choke. But I realize, no software firewall can be truly "secure", especially when I'm running windows.

I read over some things again, I believe the reason I have such a low profile on the internet, I'm using Internet Connection Sharing. ICS seems to automatically reconfigure and close ports, making your computer much more secure than the default Windows setup.

PTF is new to me, tell me more?

[Simfal]

PTF (Personal Tiny Firewall) naff name, but good kit. Much more flexible than ZA or ZA Pro. NO mailsafe facility though!

It's available at http://www.tinysoftware.com and it's free for personal use.
There are other products there that you might like as well.

[Hpro]

You could also use this one here
netstat -a enter - this will display all what is connected your outgoing line..works on all Windows to get the command line option use NETSTAT /? and press enter
http://www.thedebug.com/pictures/netstat.jpg