Secure Your Online Protection with Zonealarm or Norton Firewall

[Saint]

If you have Zonealarm or Norton firewall etc..., are you surely free from hackers? 100% safe ?

 

[maximus]

not even the pentagon is 100% safe from hackers, but those programs offer as much protection as you'll need. (protection from the bad-hackers, that is.)

 

[Considering]

Of all the hackers I have known, not a single one of them got off on hacking a random persons computer. Unless you are really, really, really bored, why would you want to look through someone's family photos?

Anyway, just like max said, no one is 100% safe, but running something like that on a home computer guarentees that a hacker won't waste his time.

 

[russ_watters]

The best way to protect yourself on the consumer level is with a NAT router. Generally you buy one to share a cable or dsl connection between computers, but purely as a biproduct of how they work, they provide a NEARLY impenetrable firewall. NAT stands for Network Address Translation. Every computer on the internet needs an address - IP address. But if you have cable or dsl, it is often more expensive to get multiple IP addresses for multiple computers. So what a NAT router does is it gives the individual computers IP addresses that are only valid inside their network, but invalid for use on the internet. Then it figures out which computer to send individual packets of data to as it receives them from the internet. The end result is that all a hacker sees is the router. Since the computers behind the router don't have real IP addresses, they are difficult to access directly through the internet.

 

[Zantra]

Originally posted by russ_watters
The best way to protect yourself on the consumer level is with a NAT router. Generally you buy one to share a cable or dsl connection between computers, but purely as a biproduct of how they work, they provide a NEARLY impenetrable firewall. NAT stands for Network Address Translation. Every computer on the internet needs an address - IP address. But if you have cable or dsl, it is often more expensive to get multiple IP addresses for multiple computers. So what a NAT router does is it gives the individual computers IP addresses that are only valid inside their network, but invalid for use on the internet. Then it figures out which computer to send individual packets of data to as it receives them from the internet. The end result is that all a hacker sees is the router. Since the computers behind the router don't have real IP addresses, they are difficult to access directly through the internet.

However the downside is that certain programs, namely certain online games, will not work in NAT mode. Basically it sends all outbound traffic through a single IP, and some games operate on a MAC address or specific port that the NAT router can't translate to the specific computer, and the reply is lost. However, more and more games are coming with a NAT Resolution option built in.

 

[username]

A free online security check by Symantec can be found here:

http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym

 

[jb]

the only guaranteed way to stay free from hackers, is to unplug your computer from the internet.

 

[megashawn]

I used to play around with stuff one might consider hacking in my younger years. I never did anything bad, and always tested on myself or friends.

Anyhow, the is a Hackers motto floating around out there, which says that a true hacker is merely interested in info. Most people that are good enough to get past those programs, probably wouldn't hurt you, unless they've got a need/reason.

Also, I imagine the hacking world is declining since hackers are now treated as terrorists. Mostly what I find such programs usefull for is blocking spam and such.

 

[Artman]

Originally posted by megashawn
... Mostly what I find such programs usefull for is blocking spam and such.

I have a dial-up connection at home and I put Zone-Alarm on it, I was amazed at how often it gets hit by various attempts to access my computer (probably just spiders doing casual searches).

It blocks attempts both from outside and inside, it tells you when Windows is trying to update itself, for instance, or if you have some kind of an ad that has lodged itself in your computer and is trying to access the internet. It tells you the program trying to call out and you can remove it.

You have to keep zone alarm up-to-date or else it doesn't catch everything.

 

[DR OF DEATH]

megashawn you obviously know yourstuff, i know quite a few hackers, but nothing they do is ever malicious, theyre just taking infomation that companies don't want us to know, and making it public. if this means hacking into systems and stealing the info then they are willing to do that.

 

[Zantra]

Originally posted by megashawn
I used to play around with stuff one might consider hacking in my younger years. I never did anything bad, and always tested on myself or friends.

Anyhow, the is a Hackers motto floating around out there, which says that a true hacker is merely interested in info. Most people that are good enough to get past those programs, probably wouldn't hurt you, unless they've got a need/reason.

Also, I imagine the hacking world is declining since hackers are now treated as terrorists. Mostly what I find such programs usefull for is blocking spam and such.

Thus is the difference between hackers and crackers.


I made a transgression or two in my youth ;)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

The absolute only way not to get hacked is to not own a computer. I know of some hackers that can turn on your computer if it's off

 

[Mr. Robin Parsons]

Heck, in some of the places that I get to use public computers, hacked! they have been! just fixed one of them this morning, as it had been a victim of the "Vbouncer" program.

It's a 'trojan' of sorts, what a mess it made, but the fix was simple enough, and the computer is running fine now. Lots of good info, on the net, as to what to do, how to fix, registry editors, cleaners, etc.

The last computer that got hacked, at one place, was removed completely. I know that they don't have the disc's there, so I couldn't simply wipe it clean and restart from scratch which would have solved that problem. That one was a real mess, and the hacker was 'putting it into sleep mode' so I wouldn't be able to isolate/remove the virus with the 15 day "free trial edition" of Norton that I had gotten into it.

But the "scriptkidiots" works are fun(not!)ny sometimes, all those windows 'opening' to freeze/sieze your RAM.


EDIT SP!

 

[megashawn]

The absolute only way not to get hacked is to not own a computer. I know of some hackers that can turn on your computer if it's off

The only way I could think of is if one left the option to wake on lan or wake on ring enabled w/o good reason or proper protection.

 

[Zantra]

Yes that is the only way. And that would require a very specific set of cicumstances and carelessness on the part of the PC owner. If I'm not mistaken wake on lan/riger is disabled by default.

 

[DR OF DEATH]

but isn't there a virus that a hacker can put on to a system which goes through changing th edefualt settings to allow access for the hacker? I am sure there is but as i don't do anything malicious or use virus's a lot I am not sure on this point

 

[Zantra]

I'm there there is a way of modifying the registry, but the hacker would have to know specifically that the company uses wake on lan cards for that trick to be useful, which and decent company's IT wouldn't use due to the vunerability. Hackers tend to broaden their range when looking for exploits.

 

[DR OF DEATH]

humm true,and a good point. but like i say i just go into systems, grab the info I am after and get out, i don't really do much of the hacking unless i need to.

 

[Zantra]

I use my knowledge for good, and not evil;) Besides, it's not what you know, but what those you know, know;)

 

[quartodeciman]

option to wake on lan or wake on ring-

Where is this?

 

[Zantra]

It's an option that was integrated into NIC cards in order to grant remote power on access. It's not widely used anymore, if at all.

 

[russ_watters]

Originally posted by quartodeciman
option to wake on lan or wake on ring-

Where is this?

Its in BIOS Setup. Generally you get to it by hitting "del" at startup.

but isn't there a virus that a hacker can put on to a system which goes through changing th edefualt settings to allow access for the hacker? I am sure there is but as i don't do anything malicious or use virus's a lot I am not sure on this point

Sure, but how does he do that if he doesn't even know you are online? Thats essentially what a NAT router does for you.

 

[FZ+]

Originally posted by russ_watters
The best way to protect yourself on the consumer level is with a NAT router.

Well, really, the best way to protect yourself is not to put yourself in the line of fire in the first place.

 

[Matt]

I've used both software and hardware methods of anti-virus. The software like Zone Alarm Pro or Norton is easy to use, however the major downside is the system resources that are used by the these programs. Norton Antivirus added nearly 30 secs to boot up and shut down and it takes up up a ridiculous amount of memory. Hardware firewalls are usually for the more advanced user and are usually effective but sometime more expensive. You know, really the best advice is to be wary of what you download and where you surf. It's all about responsibility :)

 

[DR OF DEATH]

those are all very well to protect against virus's, but they don't always stop hackers, trust me I've gone through firewalls plenty of times.

 

[Zantra]

Originally posted by drdeath
those are all very well to protect against virus's, but they don't always stop hackers, trust me I've gone through firewalls plenty of times.

Any decent firewall is useless if it's not setup the right way.

 

[DR OF DEATH]

even the best set up firewall, can still be broken through by a half decent hacker!