About Anti Virus
 

Please forgive me as this is not about travel but I know someone out there has the answer. I have Norton Anti Virus and I am attacked often. Norton gives me how many times attacked and the 10 digit number of the attacker. What can I do with that number? I don't have a clue...

cd, it may not be that you are being attacked/hacked. Each time you visit a site, you add that site's cookie to your hard drive. If you have registered for any particular sites, you may have given permission for those sites to update any information stored on your computer (sites you have visited, etc.). I'm not very technical at this, but this is how it was explained to me. I also had a program that set off an alarm when my pc was being "invaded", and it provided the IP number that I could track through a company whose name escapes me. I never did find out who owned the specific 10 digit number. However, I spoke to my ISP about these attacks, and was told that if I was worried that I could install a firewall, or I could just disconnect myself from the modem. I don't keep any personal records on my pc (eg. bank accounts, credit card information, etc.) so for me there is nothing to worry about. Even when I do buy things online, I do take precautions and only do business with companies that have a secure server, so that my credit card number is encrypted. I have never been hacked, and my credit card has never been used by anyone but me. Maybe I've been lucky, but I stopped worrying about the attacks. I actually removed that specific program because the alarm going off drove me crazy.<BR><BR>I'm sure you'll get a better explanation from someone who has a technical background.

Thanks Leslie<BR>The blinking lights do drive me crazy. I wish there was a way to just click on that 10 digit number and find out who it is. I guess there is no way of knowing who belongs to that IP without, as you said, some company doing a search and that is something that apparently I cannot do. Thanks again for the info!

Do a search for "DNS lookup" in Yahoo. This will allow you to look up that number and find out what domain it is coming from. If you use the ARIN DNS lookup at http://www.arin.net/whois/arinwhois.html it will often give you a webmaster or abuse email address you can write to to complain. Just give the time and date, and the 10 digit number and port (if you know it) and they will handle it. Yes, oftentimes they are cookies being set, but I am getting an increasing amount of hackers, from AOL and AT&T users, in particular.

Dear cd,<BR>There is precious little you can do with the IP address but, of much more importance is the need to protect your computer from other types of malicious attacks especially if you have an "always on" internet connection (DSL or cable modem). <BR><BR>For a primer of PC security (that does get "geeky" at times), visit:<BR>http://www.grc.com and do the "Shields Up" test.<BR>hth,<BR>mj