Firewall alerts - some reassurance

[McKenzie]

I've seen people post to ask WTF they are getting loads of firewall alerts.

I've been online for 15 minutes and I have had ...hang on...87 alerts (now 193 after the time it took to type this) all against one port number from 4-5 different IP's. Running a trace on some of them shows they are almost all from the US and UK.

I reckon someone who has had the IP before me (I'm on a dynamically assigned IP) has been on a gaming site and there is still traffic at that site.

I didn't get the scans last time I logged on with a different IP so it's fair to assume it's not my 'puter per se that's the target, but the IP. I'm not worried because my use of that IP will cease when I log off. Bet if I logged off and came back online with a new IP the scans against the port I mention would stop.

The point I'm making is that it's easy to get paranoid about something perfectly normal. A load of scans would suggest hack attempts but that's rarely the case. Besides, the main problem is outbound traffic, ie attempts to access the net from your 'puter. That means something is already on your HDD.

Anyway, my firewall doesn't send a response back so, to all intents and purposes, they can't see me. Even a PING request wouldn't reveal anything because of the way my firewall works; the PING would time out. Anyone running Zone Alarm would be similarly protected; other firewalls can operate in "stealth" mode but not all...

So don't worry too much.

[AllyCat]

1. Thanks MK...I have few outgoing attempts

so that's good news.

I need to get a dynamic IP...maybe that's part of my problem. With my first paycheck...router!

Up until ZoneAlarm, I honestly believed my firewall was doing okay. Good thing I don't buy stuff on-line.