Coming home from Korly's house I get a call from my Girlfriend, apparantly something is wrong with her comp. She gives me a diagnosis and I tell her she's been hacked. Anyhoo I need a decent firewall on the cheap. Anybody got suggestions?
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Coming home from Korly's house I get a call from my Girlfriend, apparantly something is wrong with her comp. She gives me a diagnosis and I tell her she's been hacked. Anyhoo I need a decent firewall on the cheap. Anybody got suggestions?
You have a router, use its firewall.
ºTracer
www.zonealarm.com - free software firewall solution.
My router's firewall has been driving me crazy lately. It won't let me play Vantage Master Online. :(
Tracer is a gentleman and a scholar. I'll get ZoneAlarm on her machine asap
Note: Neither I, nor her have a router (Granted I'm getting one)
I used ZoneAlarm religously when I was hacked when I had DSL. That puppy worked like a charm. There are a few low-cost versions of the ZoneAlarm firewall out there, but the free one should do the trick, for now.
Just so you know - ZA is not perfect, like Jeremy said. ICQ and other programs create holes in it. But it's the absolute best software solution and it doesn't advertise your ports (this is a method I'll not understand... some software firewalls like BlackICE Defender broadcasts that there is a machine at that address and even opens arbitrary ports. It's like leaving your door cracked a open in hopes of catching a theif. The problem is, if it works... you've got a theif on your hands º_o)
ºTracer
www.digitalduo.com has some great reviews of firewalls, and links to where you can get them. I used to watch the public access show (of which all the content comes from) and found it to be quite informative. The info on the site is out of date, but it's a nice little round-up of damn near everything in tech-dom.
Question - What are some of the symptoms of being hacked? I'm curious.
:lol:Quote:
Originally posted by FighterX
Question - What are some of the symptoms of being hacked? I'm curious.
I wouldn't nessisarily say symptoms. Most real-deal hacks don't involve breaking anything or messing things up but the aquisition of information, usually it would involve finding low-key permission to access needed data. Real hacks are pretty genuine and unique.
What most people call hacks are just scripts, viruses, trojans and the like. There are ready made and involve very little knowledge. These are thing that are most common, and happen to anyone the user of the scripts/trojans can get. Indiscriminately. These things often hijack a users bandwidth to bombard targets (usually websites) with UDP packets. Any unprotected connection is suseptable to this. Many "freeware" programs promise fantasic things like p2p programs, passwod generators for adult sites and many other assorted guises for netbus programs. Slowed system operation, consumed resources or bandwidth are good signs of being 'infected' with thi sort. Run Virus-Scan and Ad-Aware to be sure you're not being fucked with.
ºTracer
Also, avoid file-sharing programs unless you know that they're spyware-free. www.zeropaid.com is the best resource of into for file-sharing, and it tells you which programs are, and aren't bombarded with spyware.
Well here's what happened. Or at least what I was told over the phone. The XP login screen where you see all of the users and click on yours and put in your pw, usually had 3 names, herself, her brother, and her mom. A fourth login showed up that was stated as "An Internet User". Shortly after this, windows was no longer functioning.
yeah zone alarm will do the job, and if a router is running also set that up, you can never have enough protection.
If you use normal KaZaA or iMesh, you're a complete moron.Quote:
Originally posted by Jeremy
Also, avoid file-sharing programs unless you know that they're spyware-free. www.zeropaid.com is the best resource of into for file-sharing, and it tells you which programs are, and aren't bombarded with spyware.
Listen to the man. KaZaA Lite's the way to go.
I use both Zone Alarm Pro and a router. At first I used ZAP alone and it did a great job. Now that I've added the router, there's been next to nothing for ZAP to report.
A great feature in ZAP is the internet lock which lets you instantly kill all traffic to/from your machine.
AdAware is truly essential. Don't download anything else until you have it. I also use Spybot Search & Destroy.
UV3 B33N H4X0R4D!!!!!111111111111 L0L!!!!!!!! 0WN3D BY D4 D00DZSAQZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Quote:
Originally posted by FighterX
Question - What are some of the symptoms of being hacked? I'm curious.