routing ?

[Lavey]

Hi,

New to this - please be gentle LOL.
Been playing with programs like Netinfo - after being attacked many times (logged on ZoneAlarm firewall).
Did a trace on an IP that was 'routing via my ip', can somebody please explain this to me?

The trace had 14 hops - is this a hacker ?
Should i be worried about this? I have also set up a LAN at home (was file and print sharing!-till i found out you could access over the interent !)
Cheers,

 

[wybnormal]

There are all kinds of things legit that look nefarious. ZoneAlarm properly configured will protect you from many of them.. including the unwanted advertisement of ports 137/138 for the file and print sharing. I normally lock EVERYTHING down tight until something breaks and I check the log to see what it is.. and what port they want to use.

The hop count doesnt mean much.. what does mean something is when you see an IP hitting your firewall with a "high" port ( over 1024).. sometimes legit but many times not.

The more expensive firewalls( read harder to config) can do cool things like watch for pings packets and then dump them into a bit bucket WITHOUT sending back the error message. You can block any "private" IP range from coming into your network.. you can prevent IP "redirects" where the hacker sends the packet to your router, it's redirected and leaves towards it's target with YOUR IP as the last "source"

And so on.. and so on.. kinda like the old cold war .. you do one thing to prevent a problem.. the "dark side" tries to up the ante. The hope is to make it difficult enough to keep the script kiddies away from messing with your network.

MikeS
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[Lavey]

Mike,

Thanks for your reply - clears it up a little.
Been reading alot on this subject just lately - but SO much top learn!!
Can U suggest any recomended reading ?

Thanks for your time.....

 

[wybnormal]

It depends.. are you looking for just a general overview? a *how to*?

A good book but detailed and "heavy" is called "Building internet Firewalls" by O'Reilly. There is "Hack Attacks,Complete: An Encyclopedia of Hacks, Cracks, Phreaks, and Spys" by John Chirillo.

MikeS
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin