As a result of comments here I have ditched "Nukenabber" and downloaded "ZoneAlarm".
So far I am very happy with ZA.
It seems also to be much more "user friendly" than NN.
Thanks for the tip.
:) :)

Firstly, thanks Max for that very useful and informative link.
Secondly, can so many paranoid people with just enough information to frighten themselves be wrong about ZoneAlarm ?
Nah - it's good kit - I am happy with that. The underlying thread here is the number of us who don't really understand the "horses for courses" aspect of different programs. As previously mentioned, Nukenabber ISN'T a bad program - it's just not as comprehensive as ZoneAlarm in the way it hides ALL the ports rather than those you manually ( or by default ) chose to guard with Nabber.
No one program is going to cover you for Trojan/virus/unauthorised access.
Use the experiences of those guys here who have used and tested the various programs and then make a reasonably informed decision on what you need to have running for peace of mind.
I respect the opinions of many of the contributors to this forum very much and will continue to use that experience as a part of my overall defence strategy.
Finally, for those of you, who like me are a little paranoid ( no doubt due in part to ignorance ) THEY ARE OUT THERE !!!! but with ZoneAlarm the bastards can't see me.

Am I being overparanoid? ZA seems to block certain intrusions that seem inocuous. Sometimes Ill get a block that Ive traced to pprune.org and I hardly think Danny is in the hacker business.

Heres another for example:

The firewall has blocked Internet access to your computer (TCP Port 2050) from 128.11.47.159 (HTTP).

Occurred: 9 times between 14/4/2000 10:15:36 and 14/4/2000 10:36:12

Now I put this IP address into Neotrace and got:

Node: 17 of 17

Name: Burstmedia27.cam-colo.bbnplanet.com

IP Address: 128.11.47.159

Geographic location unknown

Network: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc

So is a [HTTP] a genuine hack? What about a block for [NetBIOS Name]? Must admit Im not too knowlegable in this area.

Slasher - I have wondered exactly the same thing myself. Certain miscreants out there want to get into your ( read that as anyone's ) system. I am certain some sites elicit info from your machine that you in the normal course of things would be unaware of. Perhaps the receipt of a cookie will trigger the ZoneAlarm BUT when all is said and done - Zonealarm BLOCKED and DROPPED the request. Sleep peacefully Slasher me old chum - they don't even know you exist now. Have you taken the GRC shields up test yet ?
Wonderful feel good value in that one even though the thinking man accepts that you are never totally fireproof.

Well, Burstmedia is an ad-company which specialises in 'niche' sites. Perhaps connected with the ads at the top of these pages?

At least three times now I have had the ZA 'window' come up asking if I want to accept Windows Critical Update, however, before I can say 'yes' and 'don't show me this again' all is gone, when I go to Windows Critical update it shows 'no updates available' - who do I believe?

I keep getting hits from ip addresses starting with 62.6, I can trae it back to the USA, but is there anyway I can send them a note to **** off and leave me alone?
:)

Am I paranoid or what! I havent had a single ZA alarm in the last 2 days! Have the b@stards figured out a way around ZA already?

Slasher - have you possibly unchecked the Pop up waening box ? Take a look under the "lock" tab when you maximose the control panel - you will find the checkbox there.

...or have you dropped your security levels to LOW, perhaps to allow eg. Neotrace to run, and forgotten to set them back to HIGH? Be afraid, be very afraid...

Incidentally, am I the only one who's getting p'ssed off at this flood control thing? It's probably OK for the one fingered typists, but I'm getting a bit hacked off at having to wait 5 minutes between posts.

Guys (esp Zombie and Slasher),

Thanks for all the top info. About 4 hours online later i'm much better informed, got my machine 'protected' AND i've got an accurate time from the Atomic Clock.

( ;) Oh, and i'm paranoid about internet security!!!! ;) )

Slasher et al,

you can run Atomtime & World clock together
and they update each other automatically.
I listed them both back in Oct in Laptop Essentials. :)

As for Zonealarm, I got fed up with all the popup warnings, so my jury is still out on that one.

Has anyone managed to get the ship's bells to work instead of Big Ben in WorldTime?

Blackadder.

You have two options then:

1. Disable the pop-ups. Next time one appears, check the "Do not show this in future" box. Should you wish, you can always turn notification back on again.

If you still want to know who has been trying to probe you (not a bad idea!) then

2. Download the latest beta version, which has worked perfectly well for me and keeps a log of access attempts which you can review at any time.

[This message has been edited by MAX REVERSE (edited 20 April 2000).]

addinfurnightem,

AFAIK, Windows Critical Update checks for updates quite regularly. My task scheduler says every 5 minutes, so I guess you'll be asked the question that often. I checked the box that says "Remember this for future requests?" (or whatever it says to that effect) and it's no longer a bother.

Interesting experience I've had with Zone Alarm: 2.0 works fine, but 2.1 trashes Windows Auto Update. I'm dead certain ZA 2.1 is the culprit as the problem goes away when I uninstall 2.1 and replace it with 2.0, and returns when I vice versa. Pity about that as I like the logging feature of 2.1 and I like Auto Update, but the two do not seem to like each other http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/frown.gif

Anyone had similar experience?

A good companion prog to run with Zone Alert is Sam Spade from www.samspade.org/ssw/ It's an integrated suite of tools that help you to trace the source (and lots of other info) of suspect pings reported by Zone Alert - very interesting.

BTW, due to above experiences with Windows Update I have almost memorised a routine to fix a broken Windows Auto Update. If anyone wants it, I'll post it here - it's an amalgamation of steps taken from various articles from the MS Knowledgebase.

And many thanks to the contributors to this forum who put me firstly on to Web Washer and then on to the www.grc.com site, from which I learned about Zone Alarm. No ads, no extra windows, no intrusions. Very cool.

AA


[This message has been edited by Ausatco (edited 20 April 2000).]

MAX REVERSE

Please can you provide a URL for the latest beta version of Zone Alarm. I just don't seem to be able to locate it and would love to have a try of the latest software.

Many thanks

Exsimguy, sorry, was away some days, the email you mentioned is from the ISP

Global
Internet
Access
Server
Bangalore (server 01)
VSNL Pvt. Ltd.
which is the only (state-owned) Internet provider in India.


Arora" ([email protected]

Anon-x, you can get the latest, which is V 2.1.10, at http://www.zonelabs.com/download_ZAfree.htm

That is a recent full public release (7 April 2000) I don't know if there are any later betas.
AA

No my ZA settings were all ok thats why I got worried. I went to the Shields Up test page and everything works fine. Just panicked when everything went quiet for a couple of days. Today I managed to get 4 alerts from HKG and JPY. Now I feel better!
Yeh Blacks it was from your post where I originaly got AtomTime from. Im happy with AT but is World Clock better somehow? Dont use it myself.
Ausatco yeh could you post your Broken Windows Autoupdate Non-Normal checklist here? Thanks.

Thanks so much to everyone who has been posting here and on the 'hackers' thread, I have found your info to be most helpful and a bit scary too !!
On the suggestion of the majorities, I have just dowloaded ZA, and within minutes I had a little alert screen pop up on me!
I did have the Guard Dog program installed, but it certainly did not provide the info that ZA does.
The only problem is now I have to figure out how to drive the ZA program :) Any basic tips would be greatly appreciated, as I am not a computer buff by anyone's standards!
Thanks, once again for all the help thus far.

GG

Slash,
World Clock will allow you to setup a taskbar style list of cities with their local time.
It sits on your desktop and doesn't interfere with anything.
Marry it to Atom Time and it updates the correct time everytime you logon. Neat kit.
Have a look at the demo.