What can happen if you don't run Zonealarm with broadband?

[Sacotool]

I've been running Zonealarm since I've had cable, and it's constantly logging attempted port scans etc. My friend has had cable for a month or so and hasn't been running any type of firewall, what kind of trouble could he be in for? I know a lot of the alerts are innocent, but still...

 

[Russ]

Give me his IP address, and I'll let you know what potential problems he could have. Don't worry, I won't hurt anything.

Russ, NCNE

 

[Paulson]

I'd trust Russ.

In fact, he can test out my new ip I get pretty soon

 

[rominl]

count me in as well

 

[vash]

<< I've been running Zonealarm since I've had cable, and it's constantly logging attempted port scans etc. My friend has had cable for a month or so and hasn't been running any type of firewall, what kind of trouble could he be in for? I know a lot of the alerts are innocent, but still... >>


Generally speaking, you will get plenty of port scans on a cable/dsl connection. I am running a Netgear router and reject most port scans, so its not a big deal to me since they can't get in.

Typically, if someone scans your box, they are looking for the most common ports to get files from your system. Ports 21 (FTP) and 139 (Windows networking) are the favorites to look for since most people run a MS operating system and when you find these open, you can start to probe it for file sharing, etc. If you have sharing on your Windows 98 box enabled, someone could potentially get onto your box's file system and delete, modify and even put some infected trojan files onto your system with you knowing it.

With ZoneAlarm on and customized correctly, you are generally protected from these types of things from happening. If your friend isn't running anything, he should be *somewhat* concerned about security, but if he turns his PC off when he's not using it, then there less risk of anything happening at all.

Its better to be safe than sorry, so I would run at _least_ ZoneAlarm for protection. In my case, I have a hardware filter (my Netgear router) that denies most incoming request from the internet to my own network.

If you want to check out the vulnerabilities of your network and your friends, go to grc.com and vulnerabilities.org for security scans that give out basic information about what is/isn't available on the box. The scans are pretty quick and accurate enough for most needs. I have my filters up so I always receive a &quot;stealth&quot; rating from those sites.

vash

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

in doing tech support for @Home cable, we're told that ZoneAlarm gives trouble to people periodically. One day it might be functioning properly and the next you can't get on because of it. Depends. It's finicky

 

[ElFenix]

! \/\/!|_|_ h4X0r j00!

 

[Triumph]

apparently this happened to my roommate a year before i moved in with him. they were running a linux box as a router for their ethernet. it wasn't set up very professionally: it just did what it did and they didn't really care about firewalls or protection or anything like that. well, they didn't care until the day the FBI came and took away all of their computers!! apparently someone was going through their box to hack into other sites, so it looked like it came from their IP. i don't really know the particulars, something like that. but at least they got cleared of the charges!

 

[Mday]

<< apparently someone was going through their box to hack into other sites, so it looked like it came from their IP. i don't really know the particulars, something like that. but at least they got cleared of the charges! >>



that's because the FBI are lacking intelligence.

it's very easy to tell that they were not hacking, if in fact they were NOT hacking.

--

um, i suppose i should say something meaningful... i use atguard. i have the linksys router. basically i use atguard as a logging tool. i get a full report of anything that happens =)

 

[vash]

<< apparently this happened to my roommate a year before i moved in with him. they were running a linux box as a router for their ethernet. it wasn't set up very professionally: it just did what it did and they didn't really care about firewalls or protection or anything like that. well, they didn't care until the day the FBI came and took away all of their computers!! apparently someone was going through their box to hack into other sites, so it looked like it came from their IP. i don't really know the particulars, something like that. but at least they got cleared of the charges! >>



Gotta love that great freeOS that can do really nifty things! But if you don't maintain it like you should, you can be hacked even easier than Windows! Unix (and its variants) are some pretty powerful OSes, but if you don't maintain them well, you might as well not be running an OS!

vash

 

[Aenygma]

There are plenty of internet security sites that you can go to, that will show you what can get in and or by your firewalls... (nothing beats a hardware firewall)

As for ZoneAlarm, I use that as well, and hve never had a problem with it not letting me access anything I liked.

In addition, a new Zone Alarm is out. ver 2.6