Vista - Suspicious machine activity

Hi guys,

Forgive my apparent ignorance about this, but I've posted in recent months about my machine waking up on its own while in Hibernation. However, it only happened seldomly --ninety to ninety-five percent of the time it just stayed in its Hibernation sleep state until I reactivated it. Well, that's no longer the case --it's waking up on its own more frequently, and for that reason is beginning to make me a bit suspicious. I should add here that my machine was attacked twice in the last week from an IP Address in China --my firewall intercepted it, and I did a search on the address and saw that a number of people here have been reporting and complaining about that same individual.

So my question is this: to what extent does my firewall protect my machine when it's in Hibernation, and can it be woken up by a nosy guy in China that's trying to hack into peoples' machines here in the States?

Thanks for your help.

God Lord, am I not worthy of even one simple response regarding this, or did the question spook people here?

Hello ccantare,

Neither of the above.



What firewall are you using?
Have you a router firewall as well?


If your computer is offline it won't be woken up by a nosey guy in China - or anywhere else!

LMAO!!!

I use Norton 360 and no, I don't have a router. I have a direct cable connection.

It just struck me as really odd, because within just the last few days this machine has woken up from Hibernation on its own more often than it had in the prior month or so.

I have two laptops here. When not in use, one is put to sleep, the other into hibernation.
Both suffer from insomnia & wake every so often. I'm not at all concerned by this. Both are offline with the LAN jack physically disconnected.

Nothing will get past your Norton.

Thanks --someone told me that having a wireless router also makes system infiltration by an outsider less likely. Is there any truth to that?

Just wondering.

P.S. I'm thinking of switching from Norton because my subscription is near expiration and going with Zone Alarm instead, which worked great on my old XP machine. However, their 64-bit firewall is relatively new, and they had a real problem designing one at first. They publicly gave up on doing it a while back actually. Do you think I should stick with Norton, or is going with Zone Alarm a good choice also?


Thanks.

Re - your wireless router question.
Yes & no.
It depends on so many variables e.g. secure password, type of set up, surfing habits, monitoring your security log to check for anything abnormal, the router security firewall settings & so on.
Having said that both computers here use wireless as well, & I have had no suspect intrusions. Again, as with LAN , the wireless connection is OFF when not required.

Re your anti virus question.
Choosing which program to use is a such personal matter. Me? I wouldn't use either of the ones you mentioned, many would however.
If you do remove Norton make sure that you use their appropriate removal tool.

Okay, Thanks!