Does TalkTalk tell the spyware about me?

[d000hg]

I finally got broadband yesterday from TalkTalk. On the CD you get a free trial for firewall and so on (you have to start paying after a while). I didn't want to do this since I knew I could get Sygate's free firewall as soon as I was online...
... BIG mistake. The MOMENT the system connected a flood of crap started arriving. On my 2.2Mbps connection I was downloading the firewall at about 4K per second, purely because the connection was being saturated by rubbish - .exes started appearing and popups all over the place; the whole PC slowed to a crawl.
Luckily i have a 2nd PC using dialup which already has a firewall. I installed the broadband on this PC and was able to dowload the firewall installer at 200K per second and then copy it to the first PC.

But my concern is, how did the adware find the PC so fast. My dialup PC lasted ages with no protection until one day it got 'found'. I wondered if my broadband IP had somehow been broadcast - is this likely? Perhaps TalkTalk want to show how much you need protection software by ensuring you get attacked?

[rik]

No one "broadcasts" that you are online. It takes less than 30 seconds of being online with an unprotected system for it to get a virus or malware. It is imperative to at least have an active AV, Sandbox app, or even the Windows FW running to protect your system.

[d000hg]

I never had this problem before-my other PC lasted years before suddenly being overwhelmed by a flood of crap. How is adware able to scan every possible IP address within 30s?

[Curio]

What happens is there are thousands of infected PCs out there connected to the interweb. A lot of the infections are different - some viruses, some trojans, some spyware/adware but all crap nonetheless - and they contain algorithms to find and infect more PCs.

A pc which isn't patched up to date and sometimes even ones that are will have vulnerabilities which can be exploited remotely (no interaction from the user required) usually by buffer overflow attacks. These are included in the infection algorithms.

If an infected PC is on the network it will start scanning for other PCs and if it discovers one it will try the infection routine on it, hence why your internet connection goes so slow when you are infected up. So while you were online and infected you were probably infecting other PCs - thanks for that.

A firewall mainly stops incoming unsolicited data so will prevent a lot of it. Being on broadband increases the speed at which all this happens and of course the speed with which stuff can detect and invade your PC.

Get a hardware broadband router with an SPI firewall, do it now it is a very good thing to do - this is good advice.

[d000hg]

If I have a hardware router does that mean I no longer require firewall software?

[Conan]

If I have a hardware router does that mean I no longer require firewall software?

No.

[Curio]

Personally I don't use any software firewall at the moment but I configure my hardware firewall to only allow the ports which I use RDP, http, https, FTP, VNC, DNS and a couple of others. When you are behind a hardware firewall you don't need a soft one as well especially if you are NATted.

[d000hg]

Who should I believe?

[FastGame]

Who should I believe?

Outbound protection with router ? use some type of application control software, or some free soft firewall that controls outbound.

Here's a long discussion about the subject.

[Curio]

There is a lot of FUD surrounding firewalls.

[egghead]

Who should I believe?

trust us and remember that we teach you to make the right choice to be cautious of what programs you install and let internet access. If you install something and a program you never heard of is asking for internet due to your software firewall reporting it to you is a clear example of why you need a software firewall because it alerts you to what the heck is on your computer requesting internet access.

Remember that each access attempt or permission attempt can be spyware or adware related.

nothing really needs the internet but your browser....


Egghead

[d000hg]

And Windows Update... and Acrobat update... and Media Player... and MSN... and any games you play online...
The problem is that even things like Microsoft update tools aren't always named particularly clearly.

[egghead]

And Windows Update... and Acrobat update... and Media Player... and MSN... and any games you play online...
The problem is that even things like Microsoft update tools aren't always named particularly clearly.

As long as you can choose for your computers role and what you use and expact is a smart user.

I don't like programs to auto update their software on my computer.

If it aint broke do not auto configure my rig software.......

[Curio]

he he...

[d000hg]

As long as you can choose for your computers role and what you use and expact is a smart user.

I don't like programs to auto update their software on my computer.

If it aint broke do not auto configure my rig software.......

In teory I would want to check for updates myself. But there's no chance I'd remember.