word to the wise

[VanShania]

I have just been relying on my router firewall and XPs firewall, and my
computer has always seemed sluggish. I did a fresh install of the OS and
drivers and before hooking up to the net, installed ZoneAlarm firewall free
version which blocks unwanted incoming and outgoing "bugs". Now my computer
scims along like it never has before. Though I did install updated vidcard
drivers(ATI AIW 9600 XT) which boosted my benchmark 1500 points( 10906 to
12412), it still never operated like it was when I had these drivers
installed previously. ZoneAlarm has blocked 19 intrusions from the same ip
address in 2 hours, meaning that when I was just using the mentioned
firewalls, these attacks were actually getting through( I still have my
router attached). Again, I must admit I did install my ATI drivers
differently this time( loaded Direct X 9c then vid drivers, then DX9c again,
uninstalled vidcard drivers and reinstalled them overtop of dx9) so maybe
this was the problem too. But at any rate, the performance of my computer is
like it never was before.(ATI recommends installing Vidcard drivers overtop
Direct X). I also have my computer overclocked to 171(XP2600) and my Samsung
PC3200 Cas Latency at 2T and running 1:1 with fsb. Was the best score I
could get without raising voltge and causing instability(gained 300 points).
Zone alarm rocks.

 

[dino]

a fresh install in itself will do that..you have to figure you don't have
all the apps running in the background that you had before. So what you
saying is sort of irrevelant...just wait awhile..as you start to load more
and more apps the performance will slowly go down. As for the blocked
intrusion attempts..you only see them because it is reporting it to you. I
turned that off..why look at it?
As for Windows firewall...it is not the best anyways.

 

[VanShania]

And neither are those router firewalls either. The only way these bugs are
hitting zonealarm is they are getting past the router firewall.

 

[dino]

true but..if you have any ports opened for email..or for gaming..or have
accidentally set it to DMZ...you are outside of the firewall..this computer
is DMZ'd so it is outside..my other 2 are nestled in behind it..no issues at
all with them. I run NIS for this unit.

 

[Bill]

And neither are those router firewalls either. The only way these bugs are
hitting zonealarm is they are getting past the router firewall.

If you're running the router with NAT, there is virtually no possible
way for any pings or any other contact to occur - that's the nature of
Network Address Translation (NAT) and why routers are so popular.

If you're getting pinged, then you're not using the router in NAT mode
and you're not isolated from the internet. Forget about any firewall
settings inside the router - just run it with NAT, and you're 99.9%
protected automatically. With NAT, you should NEVER see any intrusion
attempts, pings, or pokes at any port.

Besides, any port that is closed is inaccessible anyway, even if you're
not protected with a router or firewall. A closed port is like a locked
door, outsiders can't get in unless you OPEN the port.

Also, a simple firewall like ZoneAlarm is a good idea to make sure you
don't have any OUTBOUND traffic from trojans that are already on your
system. A decent antivirus program is a good idea too.

 

[VanShania]

wouldn't happen to have the ip address for the dlink router handy would ya?
I seem to have misplaced my book. This NAT thing is set in the router right?

 

[PB]

wouldn't happen to have the ip address for the dlink router handy would ya?
I seem to have misplaced my book. This NAT thing is set in the router right?

Google for "Shields Up" and you can go to a site that will attempt to
contact you and give you a report of how your PC presents itself when
connected to the Internet.

P00lb0y

 

[stanmc]

Google for "Shields Up" and you can go to a site that will attempt to
contact you and give you a report of how your PC presents itself when
connected to the Internet.

P00lb0y

www.grc.com

 

[Jester]

I don't know what the ip is for the dlink, mines acer and it starts
192.168.x.x as do most machines on a local home network.
I don't knwo how you can turn a NAT off, as thats its job to route traffic
between the 2 networks (Lan and Net), but it can be set to pass traffic
straight through. One setting is called the DMZ which will basically forward
ANY incoming traffic to a specific machine, and then theres port forwarding
which does what it says for specific ports only. Thats used for setting up
game servers or filesharing. If you want the best protection from the router
both those should be disabled in the router settings page.
Sorry if thats not the answer, I joined the thread halfway through.

J.

 

[VanShania]

From ZoneAlarm info site
Alexa Toolbar comes bundled with other programs, which may include Windows
XP, Internet Explorer 6.0. It can also be downloaded from Alexa's website
and installed directly by someone with administrative access to your
computer
Alexa Toolbar is a program that includes a pop-up manager (it blocks
pop-ups), a web search function (powered by Google) and buttons that provide
additional information, such as site information, and related sites. Alexa
also sends information about all web pages you visit back to Alexa's
servers. It includes both page URLs and data you sent to web sites as a part
of URL.

I also forgot to turn on zonealarm before rebooting and sure enough, my
optical drive performance became sluggish again. So if you don't have a good
firewall, you got spyware. I downloaded Zone Alarms free version and tryed
the pro version for 15 days. This allows you to delete it out of your system
or quarentine it. Though I don't know if it stays qaurentined after the 15
days so maybe deleting it is the better idea.

If you use aawpersonal, you've probably seen this spyware being cleaned.

Sorry Dino, didn't mean to send this to your email. Pushed the wrong button
I guess.
--
XP2600@171 [email protected] Volts,
AIW9600XT, A7N8X-X
WD120gb + 80gb HD 8mb buffers
Plextor PX-712A, SB Live OEM
Thermaltake Lanfire, 420 Watt PS
Micrsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 Joystick
ViewSonic 19" A91f+ CRT
171fsb 2066, cpu_score-2926
in 3D2005 basic 1078X768, No AA

 

[VanShania]

I deleted this file out of my computer and no ill effects, so get rid of
Alexa.

--
XP2600@171 [email protected] Volts,
AIW9600XT, A7N8X-X
WD120gb + 80gb HD 8mb buffers
Plextor PX-712A, SB Live OEM
Thermaltake Lanfire, 420 Watt PS
Micrsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 Joystick
ViewSonic 19" A91f+ CRT
171fsb 2066, cpu_score-2926
in 3D2005 basic 1078X768, No AA