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General discussion

Program Conflicts

Feb 26, 2004 2:46PM PST

Working on OS Win XP 2002 version with 6.0 IE browser and Mozilla Email and Browser.

I have installed SmartCleaner,Spybot, Adaware and Shredder programs that keep me free from spam, ads, and clean my PC from unnecessary files, and they are doing a very nice job.

I get Norton firewall notices frequently about 'hackers' and would like to trace their address but never get further than the FAQ screen that tells one how to configure Java for the trace and other such questions about tracing the hacker addresses. Someone said the reason I can get no further is because I might have programs that interfer with the trace.

So am wondering if spybot, shredder or adaware or SmartCleaner programs might do this? And if so what I can do to disable them when I try a trace of a hacker address.

Discussion is locked

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Re:Program Conflicts
Feb 26, 2004 7:28PM PST

Norton Firewall tends to deal in red herrings just like most other firewall venders. Probably at least half of all the "hacker" activity is harmless and part of normal operations for the Internet. Most of the rest is conducted by people who are lax on updating their systems with the latest security patches, use a Microsoft email client and open attachments, and/or lack any sort of anti-virus protection. Essentially a very small group of people have hijacked a much larger group of people's systems and are using them for their own means. Chances are good that even if you traced everything back, all you'd be doing is getting someone in trouble who was completely oblivious to the fact that it was even going on.

For all the "advances" Microsoft and Apple claim to have made in the way of easy to use programs and computers, all they've really succeeded in doing is breeding a better clueless user. It would seem even natural selection is a bit of a practical joker.

You're not equipped to track down the true source of these "attacks" to be blunt. Concern yourself more with keeping the real threats at bay as much as you can, given that a software firewall will only slow someone down -- if you're lucky -- if they want to get into your system, but it certainly won't stop a directed attack.

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Re:Program Conflicts
Feb 26, 2004 7:50PM PST

I use this: http://www.checkdomain.com/
I get the IP number from NPF and put it in this site. It then gives me the server being used by the hacker.
Go into NPF, statistics,view logs/alerts. Highlight the event and below copy the details. Then open an email and address it to the ISP(usually abuse@xxxx.com)
In the body of the message paste the details. Add the date, exact time and also your time zone(EST etc) and send. I understand that not all attempts are bad, but I don't have any way to know which are or aren't. In a few cases I have received email from the server stating that they have investigated the attempt and the user is longer using their ISP service. Most times they will just warn the person the first time. I used to report all attempts but that got old, so now I just look for repeated IP numbers.I get hacker attempts from all over the world as many as 12 per day but usually only a few.

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Re:Re:Program Conflicts
Feb 27, 2004 2:14AM PST

Your comment is very helpful - will check out your internet site and try out your instructions. Thanks again.