If it ain’t one dang thing, it’s five hundred others.
My poor laptop….
I’ve been getting slammed with UDP:1026 attacks. Plus, I’ve been getting these weird popup things. When it happened when the browser wasn’t even open, I knew something else was going on.
So I did a search for UDP:1026 and came up with some interesting things.
LinkLogger.com has some simple information including how to “fix” it.
Another website, LURHQ.com, has similar information. The interesting part is that it is dated from 2003. Funny how M$ hasn’t fixed it.
A third website gave good information and a much better solution. Turning off the messenger service is one thing but catching the bastards is even better. myNetWatchman.com has a tester page to see if your computer is vulnerable for the Messenger PopUps. After that, if you have a firewall running, they’d like you to download their free software and let it run in the background. What it does is take the firewall’s logs and sends them on to their website. They then filter it and can track down repeat offenders.
My firewall program, Lavasoft’s Personal Firewall, wasn’t listed. I’d heard good things about ZoneAlarm so I downloaded and installed it. I like its user interface better, more friendly and understandable. I love Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware and Ad-Watch, though.
The reason I am mentioning all this is that there’s nothing more annoying than dang popup ads. Here I was, trying to write, when I keep getting these firewall messages and popups. And instead of writing, I have now spent the last several hours trying to figure out what was going on.
You only want one anti-virus pkg and one firewall, but you can’t have too many spyware traps. Just don’t have them all running at the same time or they’ll get into a fight – sort of a turf control deal, I suppose. Recently found one that does a better job than most with trojans, downloaders, keyloggers, and some of the other weirdos. Look for Superantispyware.com
Also, for help in dealing with open port attacks, go to grc.com and also run the MBSA from Microshit.
Some of this stuff can get pretty nasty…
Right now, Lavasoft’s firewall is off and I don’t think I will bother turning it back on. ZoneAlarm is cool.
I use AVG for virus.
I use Ad-Aware and Spybot for spyware. I also have Ad-Watch running all the time.
I used McAffee forever until I started getting more spam from them than most spammers. The funny thing was, most of it was for their anti-spam software.
Good thing you don’t live closer, dude, or I’d be at your place.