ZoneAlarm question

[rancher]

Pretty scary once you see all the pings to your computer! I've checked the IP address on a few of them: Cuba, Amersterdam,
The Netherlands, Uraguay, Newfoundland (CA)......one I don't understand is Sprintlink - all in the 207. range, and one that says it's an updater for an anti-virus program that I DO NOT have on my computer. I looked at the forum for ZA and didn't find much information. Anybody here have experience with the program?

Thanks!
Rancher

Oh, and guess I'll be blocking some of our 'Powweb' friends on the forum.....

[(jj)]

Many of those are benign server pings being sent out. But that one about the AV updater would be one that I'd be concerned about.

With all of the new worms and trojans it is always best to be more safe than a little sorry.

[rancher]

Hi jj - should I have pings every few seconds from my ISP? Is that just part of normal communication between computers? Got kind of a sick feeling when I realized an ISP would be the perfect place for a bad guy to reside....really hate being paranoid!

Rancher

[(jj)]

Hmmmmm, normally I'd say no. Don't recall ever seeing any pings from my own ISP.

Think I'll move this over to the Computer forum where some of the other more "IT savvy" people hang out. Maybe get some better answers from them :)

[satis]

it's possible. Every couple seconds seems excessive. Does ZA give any details as to the type of packet and port? Is it ICMP type 8, or something else? If you could post a sample log entry I might be able to tell you with more certainty.

[paulselhi]

isp's dns and dhcp servers will regularly ping you. many dial up isp's limit your connection to 2 hour blocks, some also disconnect on inactivity

when you connect to an isp you become anothet node on their network and therefore will receive the general server chatter that is on that network, wins dhcp dns browser announcements etc

ZA should keep you safe and as long as it shows that the baddies are being blocked you are ok, you should find out your isp dhcp and dns adresses as well as your default gateway and allow these, get this from the command line ipconfig/all or winipcfg if on older win95 and i think win98

[paulselhi]

if you use any p2p s/w e.g kazza or edonkey then anyone that was downloading from you on the ports that these programs use wil continue to try to access via these ports when you close the p2p software down.

This will go on untill their end gets bored and decides you are off line. Not to sure abouy kazza but e-donkey does this a lot, it settles down after a while

[rancher]

Thanks for all the useful info. I've had ZA installed for about a week now, then I was gone for the past 3 days (computer never turned on). Amazingly, most all of the 'pings' have stopped. I've been online for about an hour now and the only alerts were from the .exe's that I was blocking anyway, and they only tried once.

ZA is certainly worth it's weight if the snoopers see it, then leave you alone. Must have a good reputation.

Rancher

[Rick_E]

I've used ZA for a couple of years and like it. After awhile most people leave on the logging but turn off the notifications... they can make you paranoid (maybe rightly so).

Getting some pings from your ISP and maybe Level3 is normal and benign.

Unless you're on a home network, you can block the program Messenger completely with no ill effect. If you're on a home network, allow the trusted zone.