Is Your PC connecting to the Internet

[jbs3645]

Nice article on Lifehacker. How to check if your computer is connecting to the web without your knowledge. Particularly useful for windows users. A lot of the MS programs connect to "home" everytime they are run. The artile and comments go on to explain some ways to prevent this.

http://lifehacker.com/software/windows/find-out-if-your-computer-is-secretly-connecting-to-the-web-302636.php

john

[Amie]

Best way to prevent it is to use a good firewall :)

[jbs3645]

Agreed and most of the comments said the same thing. The problem is getting the average person to use one. Most people find them too restrictive and really don't know how to deal with one. Maybe we should do a poll and see how many use them. I know I don't on my Linux box but each of the XP machines do and are behind a firewalled router also. Could that be why they work?

john

[Amie]

We too have a firewalled router, but also both use Zone Alarm, never had a nasty in 6 years of computing. :)

[Eve]

Well I have a firewalled router and rely on the XP built in firewall.
Seems to work - no nasties but am never complacent.

When I had 98 and an obviously misconfigured ZA I did get some.

Question - my 98 machine is networked with my XP (Main) one. I presume everything goes through the router and receives protection from that. No extra firewall on the 98 - should I have one?
It would have to be something less complicated than ZA - I could not stand the agro it caused.


I have not checked out your link yet John, but will do so.

[jbs3645]

Eve,

What kind of firewall does your router have? Is it a software firewall? Most people will tell you that you need one but I would ask what you keep on the machine and does it have access to your other one? Do you store anything valuable on it? Do you have your router set up to deny useage to other (drive by) users? Perhaps you could find a simple quick firewall to run on it that doesn't take a lot configuring. I used to Outpost and really liked it. I set it to ask questions and when something happened it would ask allow/don't allow. You could change that to auto and I put it on my daughter-in-laws machine because it confused her and she would call me whenever it asked a question, several times a day :).

You will never be truly safe as long as you connect to the internet, it just depends on how paranoid you are. My XP desktop has no firewall, just behind a router and nothing has happened to it in the last year.

john