Port Scanning

[Zetelo]

:) My mum's notebook gets scanned 2-3 times per day, that's what Outpost Security Suite Pro says. All "attacks" have been blocked succesfully, but after doing some research, I found out that some attacks aren't really dangerous since some of them were caused by the router itself.

Now that I got a brand new computer, I'm afraid that I could become a "victim" of port scanners as well, but I certainly do not have the money at the moment to buy another firewall product.

My questions are:

1. Am I protected with my router firewall and Vista Firewall being fully operational?

2. Should I do sth with my mum's notebook to prevent those scans?

3. I did a test with ShieldsUp, and although I got excellent results, how come that the notebook is still getting port-scanned?

Thanks in advance

[the Tester]

I think that everyone gets these random port scans.
I view it as something that is common and not anything to worry about.

[Seer]

-{ Quote: "1. Am I protected with my router firewall and Vista Firewall being fully operational? " }-

A router's NAT will stop any unsolicited inbound. Vista firewall is state-aware, so it will further filter what router misses (solicited packets with invalid flag combinations i.e.).

-{ Quote: "2. Should I do sth with my mum's notebook to prevent those scans?" }-

Unless you provide more info on the scans (local/remote IP, port), it is very hard to tell.

-{ Quote: "3. I did a test with ShieldsUp, and although I got excellent results, how come that the notebook is still getting port-scanned?" }-

Well, your excellent results does not guarantee you won't be scanned, right? But since you are behind a router, port scans registered by your notebook firewall come from within your LAN.

[Sully]

Router logs are full of what you could call a port scan. They are really just connection requests from computers or hardware devices around the world. Hundreds of hits in any day is not really uncommon. Some are legit, some are not. Get a router that pipes out the logs, get a software that gathers the logs and compiles them so you can view them. Pretty fascinating to see just what ports are hit from the same subnet over and over. I wonder if this indicates a botnet at all.

Regardless, watching router logs shows you just how much inbound traffic there really is. Whether or not a computer hooked up without a router in place is vulnerable is for another topic altogether.

Sul.

[Minimax2000]

Seer is right. The incessant port scans and intruder blockings by Outpost were getting on my nerves so I bought a NAT router.

[cqpreson]

I think it is a normal situation.
Maybe a third party firewall like outpost is a good way.