Security

Hi,
run gpedit.msc to open the local group policy on your pc. browse to computer config \ windows settings \ security settings \local policies \ user rights assignment and edit

1) 'access this computer from the network'
to list the users whoshould be able to connect remotely.

2)'log on locally'
to list the users who can log on directly to your machine.

This can also be achieved by (if you are on a domain) adding your account to local admins, and removing the domain admins groupfrom local admins. As long as any shares are locked down appropriately this should stop anyone accessing you. As for malware such as back orifice etc, any half decent virus scanner will pick them up. If you don't have a virus scanner, there's a goodfree online one at
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
(remove any spaces from the URL)
Hope this helps...

Friend,

You can do is install a personal firewall like Sygate (very good), BlackICE, etc. to guarantee that all "sensitive" ports from your machine are closed.
Even close the ports access from Settings/Control Panel/Network and choose what ports can be accessed remotely.
To finish, you can use internal commands from 2K such as: netstat -a, to verify if any strange IP is connected to your machine.

Regards,
Ninho (ninho2002@uol.com.br)

For the really paranoid, such as myself:

1. Lock down who has access to the system via network and locally in the Local Security Policy.

2. Set IPSec filters, or a firewall, to block all incoming traffic to the system, then open the system to the traffic you specify, i.e. HTTP, HTTPS coming in to the system.

The advantage of a firewall, like ZoneAlarm Pro or some other, is that it will give you pop-up messages for the attempts on your system.

IPSec is fine for most, and is free.

3. Encrypt personal private data on your system to keep the inquisitive users who have access to your system out.

4. Get a "cleaner", such as Internet Washer, to remove all traces of where you been on the internet from your system--even those hidden files Microsoft likes to keep

5. Use a free e-mail account for those sites you visit, that will spam you later.

6. Use a browsing tool, like Anonimizer, to block your system information from the sites you visit.

That should get you started.

To simply see who is connected go to the CMD prompt and type in "netstat". This will be show everyone connected to your PC including their address and the port.

Netstat
Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP network connections. This command is available only if the TCP/IP protocol has been installed.

netstat [-a] [-e] [-n] [-s] [-p protocol] [-r] [interval]

Parameters

-a

Displays all connections and listening ports. Server connections are normally not shown.

-e

Displays Ethernet statistics. This may be combined with the -s option.

-n

Displays addresses and port numbers in numerical form (rather than attempting name look-ups).

-s

Displays per-protocol statistics. By default, statistics are shown for TCP, UDP, ICMP, and IP. The -p option can be used to specify a subset of the default.

-p protocol

Shows connections for the protocol specified by protocol; protocol can be tcp or udp. If used with the -s option to display per-protocol statistics, protocol can be tcp, udp, icmp, or ip.

-r

Displays the contents of the routing table.

interval

Redisplays selected statistics, pausing interval seconds between each display. Press CTRL+B to stop redisplaying statistics. If this parameter is omitted, netstat prints the current configuration information once.

I would install Zonealarm. This will protect your computer and can also notify you via pop-up windows when someone is trying to do something to your computer.

Luis