Firewall

[jtrotta]

One thing I've noted since putting a Firewall in; this site gets an awfull lot of intruders, I get about 15-20 hits everytime; compaired to other area's visited this one is defintely the highest - anyone have any input on this :?:

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

Maybe because some of us put our e-mail addresses here???? Don't know. :|

 

[Julio E. Sune Jr. (FL)]

Getting an average of 2-3 hits per session. Very early in the morning (5:AM to 7:AM) I have counted as many as 7. --{Using McCaffe Firewall}

 

[Daniel Williams]

j and all,

To my knowledge, unless you POST your E-mail adress it does not show up. in other words even if you "enable E-mail" I think Waynes "system" forwards our e-mails without showing the adress. Please correct me if i am wrong!

On a BIG P.S. j, i sure hope you were joling in the cooler when you suggested I was pining or "knocking at your door"..the only thing I am capable of hacking is trees, brush, weeds and the occasional luggie..........

 

[Dan Leggett]

Some of the tech guru's can probably explain this better (or probably prove my thinking wrong) but it's my understanding that unless Wayne is polling our systems, it's not coming from this 'site'. If it is a hacker, they are probably probing your ISP and thus the node to which you are connected. I don't get any more hits on this site than I do on any others.

It may be something as simple as the sites you visited prior to stopping here, to see if you are still at their site. Of course some of it is hackers looking for a vunerable system.

Sometimes I get ZoneAlarm messages just by dialing up my ISP, without my browser, email handler, FTP program, or anything else being open. Seems like most of the attemps on my machine come from China and certain times of day have much more activity than others. Just dial-up your ISP and let it sit for a while, see how many 'hits' you get before you ever start to surf.

P.S. After reading the other posts I checked my ZoneAlarm, I'm still running v2.1.44, guess that's why I not getting the number of pop-ups as the rest of y'all.

 

[Head Surfer]

You probably have your cookie settings too high and when the Forum software sets a cookie on your machine to remember which messages you've read then Zone Alarm (or whatever you use) gives an alert. That is also probably why some people have a problem staying logged in or have to log in each time because they are paranoid about cookies and don't want to allow them. They are misiniformed about cookies and their purpose. Cookies allow interactivity with web sites. Cookies log you in, tell you which messages are new since your last visit, allow you to have an account instead of being a "guest", allow you to post messages, have a post account, have a profile, and all of the good things this board does.

I would suggest if you do install the new version of Zone Alarm settings that you disable the cookie and ad killer and and do not have the alerts pop up or you will be alerted every time you visit any site that has any kind of interactivity. The default settings protect your machine just fine.

As far as email, your email address is protected here as explained to Lee Ann in her message "never enter your email address..."

 

[Head Surfer]

One thing I've noted since putting a Firewall in; this site gets an awfull lot of intruders, I get about 15-20 hits everytime; compaired to other area's visited this one is defintely the highest - anyone have any input on this :?:

They are not "intruders" from this site, it is the forum's setting a cookie on your computer to keep up with what messages you have read, your log in session, and things like that so you can use the forum like it was intended. Without cookies you couldn't log in automatically, you couldn't be told which messages are new since your last visit and things like that. The first thing someone thinks when they install a firewall (especially ZoneAlarm) is that hackers are running rampant trying to access their hard drive because of all the alerts that pop up that shouldn't. It's just not true. Yes, I need a firewall, but NO I don't want to be notified every time a cookie is set on my computer when I visit an interactive site or when an add is blocked or anything like that. The notification is more intrusive on my Internet enjoyment than whatever it blocked.

If you use ZoneAlarm I will make a statement about it. I am really disappointed that ZoneAlarm (the lastest version) has gone from being a great firewall into adding other "features" such as add blocking and cookie deletion that really cause more problems and interfere with users enjoyment of the Internet. When a new user installs Zone Alarm and gets all the popup "alerts" just because a site has set a cookie or has served an ad then they panic and think their computer is "under attack"! NOT SO!

The Zone Alarm popups are more anoying than the pop up ads they try to stop (we don't have pop up ads here). The new Zone Alarm has gone the way of Microsoft and Norton Utilities and is trying to be the "be all" program instead of just doing what it is supposed to do and that is provide a firewall. I remember one time I loaded Norton Utilities and it had all these programs running in the background by default and my computer ran about half speed until I disabled them.

Cookies are necessary for any interactive site. If you only want static web pages where you read stuff and never enter any information or interact with other users (post messages) and things like that then delete cookies. Otherwise change your Zone Alarm settings to allow cookies and allow ads and disable alerts and you will not be annoyed by Zone Alarm popups, but you will have a better internet experience and you will STILL have a great firewall in place to stop anyone from trying to access your computer.

 

[airphoto]

Just downgraded to the new version 3.0 of Zone Alarm .. where it worked just fine, before, on this site using Nut's Cape 4.79 it's now a complete failure .. also fails on other sites, as well ..

InterNut Explorer 6.0 seems to work just fine ..

 

[Dave Smith]

A tip from here.

When I upgraded to Zone Alarm 2.6.362 I had many problems with it. I had loaded it with instructions to use my old settings, from an earlier version, 2.1 I think it was.

So... I uninstalled 2.6.362 and deleted 2.1 from my system. Then I reinstalled 2.6.362, with instructions to start from scratch and all is well. It works without a hitch.

 

[Head Surfer]

The 2.0 verions of Zone Alarm were great. Did their job, kept intruders out, didn't bother you so much. The 3 series have default settings that cause problems for most people.

My biggest objection is that they have scared some people away from cookies by including a cookie deleter in their software, so people naturally think they should use it and that cookies are bad. This doesn't have anything to do with the firewall, and neither does the ad blocker. The new Zone Alarm with the default settings is more annoying than ads with all it's popups and also causes problems with any GOOD web site, such as this forum which must use cookies for the advanced features.

I am a paid Zone Alarm user also, I believe in paying for software that works good, so I have the "pro" version. Wish I didn't pay them, it seems like they took the money from me and other users and put a bunch of stuff there that is unneeded and unwanted. I just upgraded to the Zone Alarm 3 pro version and I am thinking about taking it off and go back to the 2 series.