I do not know how?...Someone is trying to connect with my computer

[Guest]

I have the attacking computer #, which I believe is the I.P. address, and the
risk name. and the traffic description. Not that I know what all that means.
But recently someone got a hold of information I only wrote to one person by
e-mail. They new everything...A property deal, the only way they could of
known was to some how tap into my computer. How can I find out who is doing
this to me? I have an idea of who...but need to know....Anyone who can
help?????

 

[Shane Nokes]

Change all of your passwords

That's the first thing to do when you have an intruder.

The second thing to do is notify the police and keep track of that IP
address and do some serious virus scans. Perhaps take the computer offline
for a couple days or use a different one if you can. Also have your ISP
reassign you a new IP address.

That can help for a start.

 

[Leythos]

I have the attacking computer #, which I believe is the I.P. address, and the
risk name. and the traffic description. Not that I know what all that means.
But recently someone got a hold of information I only wrote to one person by
e-mail. They new everything...A property deal, the only way they could of
known was to some how tap into my computer. How can I find out who is doing
this to me? I have an idea of who...but need to know....Anyone who can
help?????

If you send an email, and the contents are not encrypted, then anyone in
the world can obtain it.

Fact is that if you or your friend had a weak password that anyone could
get into their email account. Fact is that if your friend shares their
computer, well, you know. Same with you, if you share your computer then
you could have given it away.

Yes, you could have spyware or other on your computers, and it's very
likely, but that someone would want that specific document is slim -
better chance that you or the receiver has a weak password or it was
intercepted.

--

Leythos
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
(e-mail address removed) (remove 999 for proper email address)

 

[Guest]

a tip i learned here - always create seperate user for installing
progs/changing settings, etc - 'install/whatever' = administrator +
'Yourname' = std user

for day-2-day - use 'Yourname' and as a std user your computer is virtually
bomb proof because you simply don't have permission to do it harm - neither
does any malware, virus, trojan this is knocking at your door whilst you are
logged in/surfing, etc

for the occasions when you need to install something (bit of a p.i.t.a. at
first but not that often once you all set up) - login as
'install'/administrator - install it - then log back in an 'your name'

this method is still even safer than vistas user account control

 

[Thai Berry \(U.S.\)]

that is a good tip for protection Jethro!

a tip i learned here - always create seperate user for installing
progs/changing settings, etc - 'install/whatever' = administrator +
'Yourname' = std user

for day-2-day - use 'Yourname' and as a std user your computer is
virtually bomb proof because you simply don't have permission to do it
harm - neither does any malware, virus, trojan this is knocking at your
door whilst you are logged in/surfing, etc

for the occasions when you need to install something (bit of a p.i.t.a. at
first but not that often once you all set up) - login as
'install'/administrator - install it - then log back in an 'your name'

this method is still even safer than vistas user account control

 

[Shane Nokes]

Actually it's terrible advice.

By default all accounts in Vista are User accounts, even if they proclaim to be admin account.

So if you create a separate account in the User category you're not changing anything. You can still install programs if you know the username/password of the original users account, and you can still carry out attacks just as easily.
that is a good tip for protection Jethro!

 

[JCS]

Wrong. That is actually good advice, but needs a little tweaking. It's a
bad idea to do your day to day computing using the Administrator account.
You are correct in that by default THE Administrator account is disabled.
Therefore, you should enable it, and password protect it. Then turn all
other accounts into standard user accounts. The only way to make system
wide changes at this point will be to know THE Administrator password. When
UAC pops up, you won't be able to simply click 'Okay', but you'll also have
to enter the new Administrator password.

As for enabling THE Administrator account, a quick search through these
forums or Google will give you a few alternatives for doing that. The
simplest way is to click Start, type cmd into the search pane, right-click
the cmd.exe item at the top, and choose Run as administrator. Type net user
administrator /active:yes and enter, then log off. The Administrator account
now shows up on the welcome screen.


Actually it's terrible advice.

By default all accounts in Vista are User accounts, even if they proclaim to
be admin account.

So if you create a separate account in the User category you're not changing
anything. You can still install programs if you know the username/password
of the original users account, and you can still carry out attacks just as
easily.
that is a good tip for protection Jethro!

 

[Guest]

change the passwords,tell your friend to change his.do a spyware,,you might
have a malware thing,comeing in to your computer..can you do a restore.to an
earlier time..people can break in to your life and home though your
computer..i cant beleive our goverment does not pass some laws..to stop these
people..they are criminals of the worst kind

Wrong. That is actually good advice, but needs a little tweaking. It's a
bad idea to do your day to day computing using the Administrator account.
You are correct in that by default THE Administrator account is disabled.
Therefore, you should enable it, and password protect it. Then turn all
other accounts into standard user accounts. The only way to make system
wide changes at this point will be to know THE Administrator password. When
UAC pops up, you won't be able to simply click 'Okay', but you'll also have
to enter the new Administrator password.

As for enabling THE Administrator account, a quick search through these
forums or Google will give you a few alternatives for doing that. The
simplest way is to click Start, type cmd into the search pane, right-click
the cmd.exe item at the top, and choose Run as administrator. Type net user
administrator /active:yes and enter, then log off. The Administrator account
now shows up on the welcome screen.


Actually it's terrible advice.

By default all accounts in Vista are User accounts, even if they proclaim to
be admin account.

So if you create a separate account in the User category you're not changing
anything. You can still install programs if you know the username/password
of the original users account, and you can still carry out attacks just as
easily.
that is a good tip for protection Jethro!

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Actually it's terrible advice.

NO, it is best practice, and if everybody did that in the first place, we
would not have been lumped with UAC.

The fact that Run As has disappeared from the context menus now makes this
harder to implement, which is annoying. I have been doing that for years,
and that is why I never got any malware that a lot of people were
complaining about with XP.

ss.

 

[Saucy]

NO, it is best practice, and if everybody did that in the first place, we
would not have been lumped with UAC.

The fact that Run As has disappeared from the context menus now makes this
harder to implement, which is annoying. I have been doing that for years,
and that is why I never got any malware that a lot of people were
complaining about with XP.

ss.

If a person wants to run Windows relatively securely, pretty much all the
tools - save the virus scanner - are there in the Windows box. It's a matter
of will (and a bit of learning and implementation).

Saucy

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?JethroUK=A9?=]

I never had virus/malware issues either and I can hand-on-heart say I never
used any virus/malware protection software either

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?JethroUK=A9?=]

Just to mention - I did say to use a Standard user account for Day-2-Day
use - only using install/admin login when installing

Wrong. That is actually good advice, but needs a little tweaking. It's a
bad idea to do your day to day computing using the Administrator account.
You are correct in that by default THE Administrator account is disabled.
Therefore, you should enable it, and password protect it. Then turn all
other accounts into standard user accounts. The only way to make system
wide changes at this point will be to know THE Administrator password.
When UAC pops up, you won't be able to simply click 'Okay', but you'll
also have to enter the new Administrator password.

As for enabling THE Administrator account, a quick search through these
forums or Google will give you a few alternatives for doing that. The
simplest way is to click Start, type cmd into the search pane, right-click
the cmd.exe item at the top, and choose Run as administrator. Type net
user administrator /active:yes and enter, then log off. The Administrator
account now shows up on the welcome screen.


Actually it's terrible advice.

By default all accounts in Vista are User accounts, even if they proclaim
to be admin account.

So if you create a separate account in the User category you're not
changing anything. You can still install programs if you know the
username/password of the original users account, and you can still carry
out attacks just as easily.
that is a good tip for protection Jethro!

 

[JCS]

Yes, you gave good advice. My response was to the poster that said you had
given "terrible advice". Standard User is definitely the safest way to
conduct your day to day computing.

 

[vanilla]

I agree completely with Jethro. I do this, too, based on recommendations I
read in newsgroups back when I first got Vista.

If something prompts while I am in my day-to-day standard user, I click
cancel. I never type in my Administrator password.

I make a note in my little journal I keep and then, the next time I am in my
Administrator account, I let whatever it was that wanted to phone home go
ahead and call. When I get the UAC prompt to elevate, all I have to do is
click "Continue".

A few months ago, whenever I was in my standard user, a java icon would show
up in the systray, and a box would come up announcing there was an updated
version available! get it now ... I knew from Secunia that I had the latest
version of java. This thing would not show up while I was in my
Administrator account. Under Admin, I would open the Java Control Panel and
let it phone home. It would tell me I had the latest version (I have ONLY
one version of java ... don't have all the past versions ... uninstalled all
but one, which I update through the Java Control Panel.)

One day, I learned how to do the "Show for all users" thing in Defender
Software Explorer. It shows ALL accounts ... even service accounts. I found
a thing called OpAgent. It had no versioning, no creation date, no
modification date, no publisher ... nada. I disabled it. Since that day,
that java icon that would show up ONLY in my standard user account has not
reappeared.

I agree with Jethro ... this is the way to run ... standard user for
everything except installs ... and don't be going out on the net very much
while in Administrator. Install, restart back to Admin if you have to, then
after the first restart back to Admin, restart one more time into your
standard user and make sure you can use whatever it is you just installed.

The one thing I can't make up my mind about is THE Administrator account.
Some experts recommend leaving it disabled. Others recommend enabling and
adding a password. What about enabling, adding a password, do a restart (or
two to make sure it gets backed up), then disabling it again ... if some
smart hacker was able to get it enabled from the default policy of disabled,
would they then run into the password that was set on it? Or does that get
trashed when you disable it again? Thanks for any thoughts .... vanilla