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markiebeau
Contributor III
Message 1 of 17

Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Hey everyone...

I had my Securuty Center updated by my ISP not too long ago. I was elated by the ease of the transition. Not too excited about the extra computer boot time. The rest of it seems to work very nicely. DAT files, etc. seem to update quicker. I also like the new interface.

It seems, however, that I have TONS of reports in my Incoming Events log...unsolicitated attempts to connect to port blah blah blah on my computer. Alot of them seem to be web sites I visited like McAfee, Hackerwatch, these kinds of things. Is this OK? What's going on here? My old Security Center never reported so many .

1 Solution

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Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 14 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Yes, when the 2011 McAfee came out we all protested that the trace feature should have been left in. Didn't do any good, of course. Apparently a number of the ISPs are moving towards blocking Pings (which tracing depends on) and that would have made the feature look unreliable or buggy. So they dropped it.

You can still trace most IP addresses yourself, using any one of a number of helpful providers. Most of them are free, although if you over-use the service you might get auto-barred. Ex_Brit recommended one to me which I find perfectly adequate : UTrace

And a second thought about port connections. As far as I understand it, many websites try to optimise page loading on your PC by spreading the load around, so that constituent elements come in from two or three servers in parallel rather than in one download stream from one server. To get the data onto your PC faster these servers will try to open ports as required so as to keep the data flowing. That certainly would account for the multiple connections I see being made (in Process Explorer). How they cope with my Stealth firewall settings I don't know, but perhaps I should be a tad more discreet when I grumble about slow download times .....

All this I've gathered from recent reading. I hope I got it right. You live and learn, hopefully.

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16 Replies
newjack
Former Member
Message 2 of 17

Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Hi Markiebeu, Well not sure how ok it is,but it is not uncommon I`m sure.I also have a ton of inbound attempts on my computer.Not much Info for you,but Just to let you know I have the same here.I am sure others may attest to the same.

markiebeau
Contributor III
Message 3 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Hey newjack.

Good to know I'm not the only one.

I'm hoping someone here will help me understand this. Why would a site you visit attempt to connect to a port on your computer. Is there a purpose to that?

Perhaps some of the veterans can add some insight to this...

Message was edited by: markiebeau on 3/11/11 4:05:26 PM CST
ConorD62
Former Member
Message 4 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Hi,

When you attempt to visit a website, it tries to access a port on your computer.

You want to be more careful about outbound connections, as these are most likely due to malware.

Thanks.

markiebeau
Contributor III
Message 5 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Alright, but why are they trying to connect to a port on my computer? What is the purpose?

Message was edited by: markiebeau on 3/11/11 4:06:01 PM CST
newjack
Former Member
Message 6 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Well unfortunately there are plenty of bad guys out there.There are people that scan for open ports,sunspace security updates and many other ways to hack.Far beyond my comprehension.Although I would assume most of It is not with good intensions.I can not speak for the websites you visited as I don't know what they are.I know If you were to do an I.P on some of the numbers you would find attempts as far away as China.

markiebeau
Contributor III
Message 7 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Oh yes...seen that already.

Just wonder why McAfee and Hackerwatch and other sites that should be harmless appear on the list as trying to connect to a port.

Someone has to know how this works.

newjack
Former Member
Message 8 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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Well I do agree with you.But1 thing I have learned from these forums. when asking the tough Questions such as the one posed here.You will not recieve an answer.I have posed similiar Questions with no reply at all.Not even a nibble.Good luck I would like to know myself.If you look in the firewall you will see over 10 Mcafee programs with full access.What all of these do is a mystery to me still.

markiebeau
Contributor III
Message 9 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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newjack,

Thanx for your input, however I have followed these forums for a bit and I have seen some fairly complicated problems solved by the knowledge and expertise of some of the people here.

Maybe...perhaps someone may have just an inkling.

I think I may have even seen someone from McAfee answer some of these posts. I could be wrong tho....

Hayton
Reliable Contributor
Reliable Contributor
Message 10 of 17

Re: Concerning unsolicited port connection attempts.

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newjack wrote:

Well I do agree with you.But1 thing I have learned from these forums. when asking the tough Questions such as the one posed here.You will not recieve an answer.I have posed similiar Questions with no reply at all.Not even a nibble.Good luck I would like to know myself.If you look in the firewall you will see over 10 Mcafee programs with full access.What all of these do is a mystery to me still.

Too right, Newjack. Answer a tough question? No chance 🙂

As for this one, I can't give much of an answer. Why all these sites keep trying to connect to our PCs is a mystery to me. Some of it is probably third-party advertisers, who've picked up your IP and other contact details from the webpage on which they are lurking (you would be horrified at how much information about your PC and browser gets passed over in the handshaking session that precedes a web page downloading onto your screen). Once they've got you in their sights, they'll want to plant a nasty tracking cookie on your PC so they can follow you and watch your browsing habits ...

But that doesn't explain away all of these contact attempts. Log on here, or at Microsoft, or Dell, or any of the big and supposedly respectable sites with Privacy Policies and ethical constraints and you'll find that all of them make attempts to connect to your PC via some weird ports. There's a Port List somewhere in one of my directories, with a complete range of all the ports and what they're meant to be used for - and which viruses use them to gain access. I skimmed through it when I found it and immediately slammed ny firewall settings to Stealth, and unchecked as many of the named ports in the Security Center list as I could get away with. It hasn't stopped me using the internet, and the sites I go to still seem to work. But, like you and the OP, my Inbound Events list has hundreds of these failed attempts to connect. Some of them come from IPs that I now recognise, but every so often when I see something really suspect I check it to see where it's coming from. My IP blacklist is not yet large, but it is growing.

Like Conor said, though, don't worry about what's in the Incoming list. They have all, by definition, failed. You don't get to see the ones that succeed ....

And do worry about anything that shows up in the Outbound Events list. Something somewhere is trying to call home. Check those very carefully. I have only one of those, and that was Google Earth. I relented in the end and allowed it.

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