Help with firewall

[hzl eyed grl]

I just installed a trial of a personal firewall. (I have no idea if this question belongs in this forum or another like software...) Anyway...My question is this: I keep getting popups saying that people are trying to connect to my computer. Is it normal for people to do that? (Yeah yeah, I know...you're probably laughing....but I'm still learning..heehee) I did a whois and found that one IP came from http://www.garuda-indonesia.com/. How would they have my IP?

Thanks for the help.

 

[minendo]

Scans like that happen all the time. As long as you have a firewall to block them you are fine. By the way what kind of internet connection do you have and who is your service provider?

 

[hzl eyed grl]

I'm on cable through Charter.

Scans like that happen all the time. As long as you have a firewall to block them you are fine.

I only have a trial version of the firewall right now. What would happen if I didn't have it and they were trying to connect to me? Obviously it must have been happening before the firewall too. lol

 

[minendo]

The scans were probably happening without you even knowing. You may want to look into ZoneAlarm because it is free. No trial versions to mess with.

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Is ZoneAlarm a firewall then? I think the one I DL'd is McAfee.

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: hzl_eyed_grl
Is ZoneAlarm a firewall then? I think the one I DL'd is McAfee.

Yup ZoneAlarm is a firewall. Probably the best free firewall you can get. I have no experience with McAfee so I know nothing about it.

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Cool. I'll do that then. I just went to zonealarm.com. I'll DL it. Thank you. Is there anything I need to know or set on it?

 

[minendo]

Originally posted by: hzl_eyed_grl
Cool. I'll do that then. I just went to zonealarm.com. I'll DL it. Thank you. Is there anything I need to know or set on it?

The settings are pretty self explanatory. As a connection is being made you need to either verify or deny it. It will start out by asking for every connection as you make them, but as you verify/deny them it saves your settings. The first time you open IE or another browser it will ask you to verify the connection.

Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions.

 

[hzl eyed grl]

Cool. Thank ya verrrrrry much.

 

[bigboxes]

Yeah, I put my vote for ZoneAlarm. As good or better than any paid software firewall. Get the Pro version for additional support, ad blocking and yes, the ability to identify where the intrusion has come from. You can always disable being notified every time someone tries to look into your pc.

 

[Creedyou]

I am new to XP and I noticed that there is a built in XP firewall for a network connection. What is that all about and is it good?

 

[smehta]

I read somewhere that Internet Firewall of Windows XP is licensed from on Tiny Software - www.tinysoftware.com

 

[hzl eyed grl]

I downloaded the Zone Alarm firewall and it seems to be working just peachy. Thanks everyone for all your help. I really had no idea that people were accessing my computer all the time. Guess I still have a ton to learn.