Yep, mine's working away in the background Loro and will hopefully stop everything. Thanks for letting us know

So Spooks wasn't as off the mark as the baffled Grauniad journo would have it.

My firewall is on and everything seems fine, El Loro.

I still haven't seen the last episode yet Joe

It's worth watching, Pam.

I think it may be connected with a story I've seen about 1,000,000 mobile phone users in China having recently had their phones virus-infected. I have also checked with an internet detective site which monitors virus attacks that many other users have been reporting attacks from the same place in recent days.

I HAPPEN TO KNOW THAT THE CHINESE WILL EAT YOUR COMPUTER AND YOU WONT BE ABLE TO POST ANY PICTURES OF SCENERY OF PLACES YOU'VE NEVER  BEEN TOO ONLY GOT OFF GOOGLE OTHERWISE OH YES BUT NOT ME OH NO NOT WITH MY SUPER DUPER FIREWALL etc

I have lots of security

I'll catch it soon Yogi

Firewalls are for wimps... I like to run around the internet nekkid

In this weather

Mine is about 10 feet thick.....with turrets.....arrow slits.....and cauldrons of boiling oil on top.......but thanks for the warning anyway

My firewall is on but I'm interested, El Loro, how you go about about tracking down the attacks?

that's nothing.. listen... I have a 12 foot wall made from 10inch thick Cotswold Stone topped off with razorwire and sharp pointy sticks, a moat full of piranha all surrounded by a minefield...

Chinese Skydivers you say? .. the crafty gits!!


Z.

my home has already been infiltrated! 

My PC installed "important" security updates and rebooted itself - whilst I wasn't looking - earlier on.

Tuesday  -> Wednesday at some point is the usual time for the regular Microsoft updates


Z.

trojan horses now

The second Tuesday of the month is 'patch Tuesday' for us

well I ain't marrying one of them!

I've just ordered a take away, am I in danger?

Sincere appy Polly lojies for mentioning spooky wooks! There's so much I wanted to say about the last series, but having spoilt last year for agent temps, I have been careful! when yer all ready ..........

I am hunkered down safer than an Alabama Tick. Locked and Loaded.

Oooh it's like a modern day Pearl Harbour (if it was a Japanese dose but close enough)

Beware the Chinese Karma

El I've got a Norton Firewall, hopefully it's strong enough to keep the nasties out

Oh I'm aware. They're some of the smartest feckers on the planet!

My a/v firewall s/w warnings show the IP (= Internet Protocol) address of the attacking website's computer. Every single computer when connected to the web has these IP addresses. They look like 123.456.789.012. There are some websites which are for tracking down where these addresses come from. So I go on to one of these, type in the number and it shows the area. It does not show an actual address, just the area. What I must not do is to type in the IP address in the box at the top of the screen where you type in the website address of where you want to go to. Only in the search box on the tracking website. Never ever type an IP address at the top of the screen unless you are instructed to by a legitimate support helpline or you are an IT technician as you will be taken to the hackers own computer and that would be incredibly stupid.

Your own computer will have an IP address. Never reveal that to anyone as they could then get access to your computer. If you use Google, you may notice that it realises where you live (only the area, not the actual house address). Google uses your IP address for potential channelling of suitable adverts for that locality. Lots of other websites do the same. Obviously the websites have to have a policy over security over the information they keep.

I've just been looking through my firewall log. In the 8 hours since I switched my computer off I have had 80 attempts by crooks attempting to breach my firewall plus 6 determined attacks. That works out that if I did not have my firewall in place, it would take between 5 and 6 minutes before my computer became infected.

A few years ago, some IT people deliberately tested a computer without a firewall to see how long it took to become infected. 8 seconds.

t h a n k s  fOR The tfyugf warning.. i t h iNK i¬m OK tho `¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬**********
$$$$))**&&$$$$"!!GHGGUUGGBbggn......................buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I regret to inform you that Clumsycat has become infected with an extremely serious and virulent virus. Anybody who even reads that post becsdvc ed ingrdf w-92##wd witiwn "£1secs9510zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 


*** puts condom on mouse *** 

Thanks for your reply El Loro

Is Norton enough?

It's an industry standard, but it should be kept up to date. Also Norton is for anti-virus. I don't use it so I don't know if it includes firewall protection as well. Some versions of Windows do include a firewall. The simplest way to check on a Windows pc is to check Security Center from your Control Panel. You should see that both Firewall and Antivirus are on. You can also check there which firewall is in operation and which antivirus s/w is in operation. Note that some routers have firewalls in them - I'm not sure whether these would appear on the Control Panel.

If you see that there are two different firewalls in operation, you should decide which one you want on and turn the other off. If you have 2 on at the same time. this can cause conflicts and slow down your computer. There is probably a warning that there are 2 firewalls on and advising you to turn one off. This does not apply to anti-virus s/w as fas as I know though I only have one anti-virus s/w on.