Internet Security Utilities

[Keith Heitmann]

Have a firewall? Windows XP? Computer acting strange?

You may have been probed and taken over by one of the numerous hacker virii or hostile apps out there.

If you would like to see if your firewall is doing the job try out the free Shields Up! online test site ad GRC.com. It will test all your ports, browser headers, even MS Messanger to see if you are vulnerable to attack.

Another test avaiable is a Leak Test to find out if your firewall is as tight as you think it is. Recently this test uncovered a leak in the renowned BlackIce Defender filrewall program. Amazingly, the makers of BlackIce Defender decided to fix their program so Leak Tester couldn't detect the existing leak instead of actually fixing the problem....the leak! Read more about it on the GRC.com site.

There are a number of free small apps you can download for further system testing, including their new DCOM Vulnerabiltiy testing program, which is only 29KB in size and requires no install. It will test your computer for any threats the DCOM system on your Windows operating system may expose your system to. They recommend shutting this service down on most system, save for XP users that virus scan services that download files automatically in the background when on line and other system services that operate similarly.

I was greatly relieved to see that my system is "Very Secure" as reported by Shields Up! and my DCOM Port 135 vulnerability was nil as my port is (as are all my computer's ports) in "stealth mode."

I do use McAfee's Online Viruscan and Firewall programs and am glad to see that they are doing the job as advertised accoring the results of the tests I performed.

Check your system out and save yourself a lot of grief later on.

www.grc.com

[Shooter]

Since I got before I got DSL I know I was "hacked" a few times, innocent stuff as far as I knew.....mouse moving around and web pages back and fourth. I started looking "into" firewalls, tried a few, blackice defender is one that comes to mind that I've tried. In my research on the topic I've settled on Zonealarm. It's free, though there's a pay version that has more, but the free is a basic and good firewall, in my experience. And from what I've read about Zonelabs, the come recommended from various "computer" sites.

just my 2 cents

[Keith Heitmann]

I check my firewall inbound event log periodically and it is just amazing at the number of attempts that are made on my system on a daily basis. So far not one of them has gotten through. McAfee's firewall has a tracer program and it will also automatically report the offending inbound event to Hackerwatch.org so they can keep the industry appraised of growing threats.

The "Shields Up!" site has or had an article on a leak in Black Ice Defender that they found, but the Black Ice's people refuse to acknowledge.

[Shooter]

I saw that a while back, which is why I dumped Blackice defender and went with Zonealarm. I also have a "tracer" program the shows info on the "hacker jerks". Some programs I've seen even showed the hops that the hacker takes, tracing it back hop by hop to the end site........most are from Europe.

YIKES is all I can say!