Are you the vehicle used in the attack against Videohelp?

[thecoalman]

If your not aware Videohelp had a DOS (denial of service) attack. A DOS attack is implemented by multiple zombie computers which flood a server overwhelming it to the point that legitimate users can't access it.

If you are one of those people who does not update your software such as Windows, use and understand a firewall and virus protection you may very well be one of those computers.


http://www.grc.com/files/grcdos.pdf

[bazooka]

Nope

I am anal about my computers and update frequently.

I am behind a hardware firewall.

[thecoalman]

This post isn't aimed at users like you Bazooka but people who get a computer and just connect it to the internet without knowing the basics of security and the damage they can cause to others.

[bazooka]

okee dokee

[Poppa_Meth]

I've been blocked at home for some reason. Says that connection was refused. I can get on fine at work though. I'm wondering if I was blocked for some reason. My PC is fresh install, firewalled, updated, etc. Only thing I can think is I was briefly trying the firefox tweak (for one day) until I figured out that it was sending 30 connection requests each time and changed it back. Wish I'd never seen that tweak.

[ViRaL1]

denial of service attack
Did you mean: DDOS (acronym), DDO (acronym)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Technologydenial of service attack
An assault on a network that floods it with so many additional requests that regular traffic is either slowed or completely interrupted. Unlike a virus or worm, which can cause severe damage to databases, a denial of service attack interrupts network service for some period. A distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack uses multiple computers throughout the network that it has previously infected. The computers act as "zombies" and work together to send out bogus messages, thereby increasing the amount of phony traffic. See smurf attack, SYN flood attack and Ping of Death.

[thecoalman]

DDOS

just adds the distributed.... DOS is a generic acronym

[ViRaL1]

Whoops, that whole thing is quoted (I should have put that). I wasn't asking if you meant it. I know what you meant. I was just checking out the part about smurf attacks. I saw a hint about this over at the pub, maybe they're not so crazy after all.

[bazooka]

There are also christmas tree attacks.

[thecoalman]

I've been blocked at home for some reason. Says that connection was refused. I can get on fine at work though. I'm wondering if I was blocked for some reason.

If you are one of those people who does not update your software such as Windows, use and understand a firewall and virus protection you may very well be one of those computers.

Is meant in general terms.... If your being denied I'd suggest you see if Baldrick has a solution.

[thecoalman]

I saw a hint about this over at the pub, maybe they're not so crazy after all.

That's theevilman spreading bogus rumors.

[Poppa_Meth]

I sent some site feedback about it and posted in his topic. I hope if that is the problem he'll be nice enough to unblock my address. I really meant no harm. I brought the topic with the firefox tweak in it back to the top and posted a warning against using it. It can't be helping the problem if everyone using it is sending 30 requests with every click.

[handyguy]

Seems to be working just fine now.

Who, what or where caused it?

Someone took out my site & my forum this month.

[doppletwo]

I update everything except I don't have SP2. I run Ad Aware, Spybot and Bazooka at least once a week.

Also I have have two hardware firewalls. Which hurts my BT speeds on unpopular items. But safety first.

And at work we have a really good hardware firewall since some spaz temp installed Kazaa last year.

I mean really what kind of spaz would install Kazaa anywhere and work of all places? He got the boot quickly.

[ViRaL1]

You'd be surprised. I've seen it quite a bit. More and more companies are cracking down on it because they don't want to get sued.

[jackal70058]

So that's what happening yesterday. I thought it my computer going on me.
I have anit-virus software on my computer, and I up date Windows 98 all the time.

But I don't have a firewall. I guess I have to look into that one.
After getting this site yesterday before it went off I got a virus and the anit-virus cleaned it out for me.

[thecoalman]

But I don't have a firewall. I guess I have to look into that one.

Thr Zonealarm, it's free and probably the most widely distributed. www.zonelabs.com

[Cobra]

I have NAV2005, a Sygate software firewall and I am behind a hardware firewall. All the kit has been perfectly configured - I live with a couple of computer scientists. 8)

[Garibaldi]

I was wondering what was going on yesterday! I couldn't get onto videohelp! I was getting the "Page not loaded" error. I have McAffe firewall and a bunch of antivirus and antispyware stuff... I only have sp1 but I do use linux alot too. Hope they don't have any more attacks!

[handyguy]

I don't have a FW, but my ISP does, so they have to go through them first.

[jackal70058]

But I don't have a firewall. I guess I have to look into that one.

Thr Zonealarm, it's free and probably the most widely distributed. www.zonelabs.com

Thanks, I will look at that.
Ive try to get the Spy Sweeper working again. It went nuts and couldn't getting it to work without an error message that the only way to stop it was to reboot My Computer. No big deal reinstalled it and it's working again.

Missing toolbar in Internet Explorer reminds me why I not use anit-spyware sofware

[zzyzzx]

I seriuosly doubt that a Windows 98SE computer with a dialup modem really needs a firewall, etc.

[ViRaL1]

You'd be surprised. Having dial-up won't necessarily make you a desirable target for hacking, but trojans and malicious scripts don't care if you're on 28.8 or an OC-3.

[Bandarlog]

For these kind of attacks, do they go through via the Browser?

I changed to Firefox a while back and surf with the Java set to off, unless I need it for a particular site. I ran Ad Aware the other day for the first time in 4 months and had only 7 hits. All of them were from a bug I still have from using Explorer (and I saw McAfee stop it those times when an application accessed Explorer for their help files).

I think Firefox is much safer than Explorer to protect yourself. (In my experience.)

Bandarlog

[JSB]

For these kind of attacks, do they go through via the Browser?

No.

JSB

[jackal70058]

I seriuosly doubt that a Windows 98SE computer with a dialup modem really needs a firewall, etc.

Oh Now you tell me.

Ive Zone Alarm now. Kind of annoying little program, but I got it working well now.