hi all just wanted to know if there is any one here who is really good with pc's.
what it is is that i just looked in my mcafee firewall only to find there has been about 61333 hits of attepts to hack into my pc. when it comes to this i aint got a clue and think i need some help. i was thinking about downloading a mp3 site so i can download music but was bit affraid in case i get a virus or something.

is there anyone who can give me a bit of guidance as to what to do about this crap? i think the firewall is working, sometimes the pc is slow but seems to be ok.

help anyone

Most of the attacks logged by firewalls are legit, as in non harmful. I used to get a lot from this site when i ran mcaffee. Some firewalls will log all incoming data as an attack

Norton sucks though, McAffee is better. I use Sygate, and only get warnings on real attacks (which i dont get as i am behind a router...) or when a program attempts to access the network.

Remember firewalls are stupid. They will assume anything is an attack unless you tell it differently.

Best thing to do is dump Mc Affee; install antivir (otherwise known as FreeAV) and sygate personal firewall. Both free and from google. Will speed your PC up no end, and they will only trouble you when something is wrong.

Want a worrying fact? Antivirus software only catches around 25% of 'viruses'....

[Edited on 31/5/06 by flak monkey]

Yep all of the above -- most firewalls cry wolf to make you think they are working hard, most of the "hits" will be router solicitions and the like.

Nost firewalls around for XP are just front ends for the existing Xp firewalls which is actually pretty good but lacks user controls.

Macaffee is 100% better than Norton which can cause massive slow downs and is a pig to uninstall cleanly even using Nortons own tool.


For non Xp Pc I use Kerio Personal Firewall version 2.14 or 2.15 --- don't install the later versions. version 2.14 can usually be found at Castle Cops website.

i can also vouch for sygate firewall, its really good, have used it for the last few years and is very good at managing the connection, plus it does tell u when people are scanning u and hijacking applications etc.

[Edited on 2/6/06 by trogdor]