Computer help?

Easier said than done.In any case, the criminals won't be deterred by that. If they manage to gain a foothold in your computer, they can still use that to attack other people, and to try to steal the identities of other people.Take a look at the phish tracker. Most of the phish operations are run from ordinary end user computers that are controlled by criminals. It might be a Romanian criminal controlling the computer of a comcast cable user in the USA. Likewise, end user computers that have been taken over are used for setting up porn sites, for illegally selling copyright violating material, and for a host of other crimes. If it happens to your computer, then the FBI will strong evidence that you are guilty of criminal activity, and it will cost you a bunch of time and money to prove that you were not the criminal.

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Compassionate conservatism - bringing you a kinder, gentler torture chamber

People do get shot on street corners every day, but I'm not going to begin wearing a bulletproof vest anytime soon. Computers do get compromised and/or hijacked everyday, for a number of different purposes, but we shouldn't let paranoia reign.Much of the decision of how much caution is warranted is based upon what risky behaviors you engage in. It's the wild link clickers who get in the most trouble. But temporarily shutting off your security software is a standard thing that is done all the time. I just installed a small application last night that suggested the installation would go more smoothly if the security software was temporarily shut off.But protecting yourself by keeping no personal information on your computer, somewhat analogous to only driving your junker car into the big city, isn't really practical for most people. Making our computers into personal extensions of ourselves is what makes them so useful. And those who hijack personal computers for use in such things as an anonymous source of spam email aren't looking for personal information on the computer anyway. By not having security software and/or a firewall you leave your computer vulnerable to being hijacked for nefarious purposes. The server for this website has been hijacked by spammers several times, and it's not even Windows, it's Linux.The bottom line is to be prudent but not paranoid. There are those out there who are out to get you, but we shouldn't go so crazy in trying to protect ourselves that our computers lose much of their utility.Most security software provides a way to make exceptions, a sort of "allow in" list. Once Iano and Faith have got things going they can turn the security software back on and figure out how to add Iano to the exception list.--Percy

This is more of a reply to crashfrog, nwr, and percy more than just percy. I wasn't advocating leaving your anti-virus and firewall off all the time. I was simply pointing out faith's apparent paranoia. It's as simple as leaving your firewall off for a mere half an hour to let someone look around. What, a person's going to commit federal crime by setting up illegal websites and other illegal activities in half an hour? Ok, perhaps that's possible... but then it just happens that the person is doing it at exactly the same time you turned off your firewall and finishes exactly right before you turn it back on?Like Percy said, I'm not going to start wearing bullet proof vest anyday soon just because people are getting shot everyday nowadays. Do be careful and use precautions, but be paranoid all the time? This is the same attitude that allowed countless dictators to assume unlimited powers in the past. On a personal note, Faith just proved in this thread that she thinks not being christian is somehow not have any moral or being outright evil. I guess I'll be hacking into her computer and start selling illegal porn... Haha, to be fair, I keep my "vital" info and most of my work on a computer that never gets to be connected online. It's not because of paranoia that prompted me to use the piece of junk for work. It's because of habit. I've only gotten malware once in the past 5 years. Know what I did? Simply deleted the old partition and put in a new one. But the point is I don't go to sites that seem risky.

No.What's more likely is that the hacker is trolling IPs and port scanning each one, several times a day; you turn your firewall off for a half-hour, long enough to be detected by the port scanner. The hacker's software drops a couple of rootkits onto your machine, the work of seconds. As soon as your firewall is back up they hack your registry and open a few holes in the firewall so they can report back to the master server.At that point, firewall or no, NAT or no, it doesn't matter. The rootkit has given the hacker everything he needs to zombie your machine. Ah. So, you are a little paranoid. In other words, you operate your computer from the perspective that interactions on the internet may not necessarily be between trustworthy parties.

The way the bad guys succeed is by looking innocent. In addition, like a good pathogen, these days they try to do minimal damage to the host system.The bad guys are no longer kids working out of a garage. Today it is businesses, and even governments that see the proliferation of personal computers on the net as an exploitable resource. The viruses, trojans, backdoors and root kits are increasingly sophisticated and specific.It is a good idea of every computer owner to spend a little time getting to understand things like ports and how computers communicate with each other. Today we have tools available that let the user control and protect their computer better than ever before. The biggest hurdle is that many folk think it is far more complex than it really is.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Alright, I'll take your word for it. But here's another thing. I don't know if the same thing can be found in other people's ports, but I had cable connection I had this button that when I push turns off the cable connection.Iunno, crashfrog, but what you described seems a little much for this conservative person to take. I guess I still live in the old days where internet seemed to be safer. See what I mean when I said in another thread that you seem very persistent at misreading/misunderstanding what I write? Is knowing that it is not wise to jump into the path of a bullet paranoia?It's called being smart. Letting fear interfere with your normal activities is paranoia.

All I've said on this thread was that I wasn't sure I wanted Percy to view the contents of my computer -- this is a matter of personal feeling based on the history of our interactions. Otherwise, all the precautions about time online with the firewall disabled etc. have been recommendations by others. I've been rather puzzled by your attributing this "paranoia" about such things to me.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Has anything worked yet? I left for a while, leaving all the firewall stuff disabled.

If it makes you feel better, just think of my attitude as paranoia about paranoia.

Your IP address has changed again. The IP address used for Message 291 is different from the one you mentioned yesterday in Message 261.

Sorry. Was on the phone for a while. Nope it didn't work. I tried the address of msg 261 which seemed to be holding.Maybe NWR could put up your current address and you could put up the address you get when you hover over the VNC logo. If the same (again) then you know where you can find your own addressNWR?

I'm closing this thread temporarily while I attempt to fix its message index. Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director

Unable to fix the problem. Could someone please open a Computer Help II thread, this one's almost at the limit anyway.Edited by Admin, : Fix Title.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Director