McAfee alerts' messages
I wonder if someone could help me. I use McAfee VirusScan Professional Edition,
together with McAfee Guardian Firewall (+ Windows XP). Since the begining of last week I am
getting all the time Firewall messages warning me for attacks - Port Scan Attack (most
frequent) every 2 minutes (average 30 per hour).
Questions:
- Is that a common situation?
- Is it dangerous?
- What can I do to avoid receiving these attacks?
Please help me!
Thanks a lot!
together with McAfee Guardian Firewall (+ Windows XP). Since the begining of last week I am
getting all the time Firewall messages warning me for attacks - Port Scan Attack (most
frequent) every 2 minutes (average 30 per hour).
Questions:
- Is that a common situation?
- Is it dangerous?
- What can I do to avoid receiving these attacks?
Please help me!
Thanks a lot!
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These are port scans, NOT NetBIOS attacks !!
Forgive me if I assumed in error. I know that firewalls tend to be dramatic about what they pick up. Port scans, as long as they are not all from the same IP address aren't anything to worry about as long as you are adequately protected, and from what you've posted, you are. I very seldom get port scanned, though. I run ZoneAlarm on my laptop and desktop with a Wireless Access Point. The router may be what's protecting me.
What you have to make sure is that any ports you DO have open, and with a personal PC, I wouldn't expect ANY, are secured.
This is a very common situation, is non-dangerous (think of it as background noise), and you can do nothing to stop receiving these, as even if you changed ISP or IP address, you'd still received them.
Do you use an Internet router ? Or are you just dialling up ?
If you have a router, you can configure that with firewalling to stop these scans at the firewall, rather than letting them annoy you by hitting your internal PC ?