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John500Flag for United States of America

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How to identify inbound traffic for Windows 7 and block ports as nessecary.

Greetings,

I'm running Windows 7 on an Acer laptop.  I'm trying to become knowledgeable of network security.  In the process I downloaded CurrPorts to identify and kill 'Unknown' connections.  Long story short, CurrPorts is about good for nothing in this regard.  Each and every attempt to kill a connection fails with a line that says I must be running it as Administrator when I am running as Administrator.

At anyone time I can have 30+ 'Unknown' connections.  This is frustrating.  Yes, I do get the IP or domain name and see who the connection is from.  Yes, many are from Google or AOL etc but many are not.  I find some connections are from all over the world and have nothing to do with what I'm using the browser for.

How can a manage these connections better?  How can I reduce the amount of unknown connections?  For instance, if I'm using Google or AOL or G mail, these are the only unknowns I want connecting to my computer.

I did use Windows Firewall with Advanced Security to set a few rules but these rules appear to be good for nothing seeing how there are so many potential Unknown connections.

Thanks for the help!
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John
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You need a Packet Sniffer for this:

I use Comm View (Tamosoft) but Wire Shark also works.

Comm View will show you the ports uses with the IP address.
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ASKER

Thank you Mr. Hurst.

I'm guessing both of these are free-ware?  Back in 2006 (my last IT days) a sniffer was in the thousands of dollars.

Given they are free, would you be so kind as to provide what you call a 'safe' download site/link.  Sometimes 90 % of the battle in obtaining good free ware is getting it from a site that doesn't find a means to installing a Trojan.

Thank you!
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Thanks guys!!
You are very welcome and good luck with Network Security.
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Member_2_276102

For instance, if I'm using Google or AOL or G mail, these are the only unknowns I want connecting to my computer.
Can you post a useful sample of the "unknown" connections? Using any of those three is likely to give a fair number of "unknown" connections in order for them to work well (or perhaps at all).

Also, are you asking about any connections or only in-bound? Also, what router/modem equipment is under your control?