Topic: The post that does and doesnt belong--Firewall issue

[ShadowLord]

Ok so this post doesn't fully belong here but its here because perhaps others have similar issues/questions and concerns..

If I am correct when we play Dyna its suggested ALL FIREWALL and ANTI Virus programs be turned off for stability -- which I usually do..

Last night when I went to bed early..left the computer up and running but I hadt my xp-internal firewall up, my dlink router firewall up and zonealarm up. I had to get in the middle of the night and let the dogs out, so I decided to check out the forums while they did their business.

Low and behold Zonealarm is flashing a big bright red screen telling me of a high priority intrusion it blocked. Ok I know most of these are not really of concern but what if?
I know that I can play GSA games just fine with zonealarm up and running – don’t think I have tried it with dyna yet..

So my question and that of perhaps many others is – can we play with zonealarm up or  how badly does that affect stability.

Now part two of my questions and please feel free to email or IM me on this if you don’t want to post it—anybody got a good IP tracker so I can do an IP trace on the IP that was blocked?

Thanks
Duck
ShadowLord31@hotmail.com

PS it was funny how I rebooted the computer and it blocked another IP before the dogs had a chance to finish their business -- hence my post and concern.

[KBFLordKrueg]

I do know that with ZoneAlarm running, you'll have issues with being drafted.

[Bonk]

IP address identifications:
ARIN: http://www.arin.net/ (American)
APNIC: http://www.apnic.net/ (Asian)
RIPE: http://www.ripe.net/ (European)
(use the "whois" searches)
edit: these whois queries will only provide the ISP the IP address is connected on, from which you can get an e-mail address to report the abuser, but bear in mind most hackers work from a dynamic IP address or public terminal. What can be helpful is to do a reverse DNS lookup on the IP address to get the hostname that corresponds to the IP address. (using nslookup)

Port number meanings:
http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers

Standard windows tools (use at the command prompt):
netstat
tracert
ping
nslookup

NOTE: if your OS is up to date and a virus and spyware scan comes up clean you're probably fine, the majority of firewall warnings are rather alarmist. The firewall may report "high risk" attacks, but if your PC is up to date and properly configured, 99.9% of such attacks will not work anyway.

Best bet for reasonably secure play without a firewall, is to play behind a router, use a static lan IP and port forward only the directx ports needed to play, but be sure you understand networking basics before you buy and install a router. (preferably not wireless)

If you must play behind zonealarm, give starfleetOP and the directplay helper full permissions, set zonealarm to medium security (allowing pings). People claim they can play sucessfully like this, but myself, I experienced nothing but consistent disconnects back on Rooks Tavern, playing behind Zonealarm have sworn off it ever since. Multiplayer stability in SFC was far better before software firewalls became popular. Mission stability did not suffer nearly as badly back then.

P.S. Not implying that you do but... the fewer porn, gambling, warez and mp3 sites you visit and the fewer filesharing programs you run, the more secure your PC will be.

P.P.S to further secure your PC, only use an adminstrative account for software installs and such, set your main account to a regular user or power-user account.

[ShadowLord]

Yep no porn sites on the new computer -- only the one at work for that --
I make sure I check for updates a few times and week and just happened to use MicroTrends housecall site to clean up any virus/spyware cookies ealier that day..

That housecall site is a godsend!

No music downloads -- told the daughter to use mom's computer for that

Interesting results from that site -- If i get any more I will report them.
Thanks bonk.

[Bonk]

You're welcome, I edited the post above to add some additional information.