firewalls

[beernutz]

If you are using the free Zonealarm you can get the IP address where the connection attempt originated and run a whois search to find out the domain it came from (if you have the Pro version of Zonealarm, this feature is already enabled). Get the IP and go to www.arin.net and enter a whois search (top left on page) and you get complete domain ownership info. If it appears the attempts are coming from pokerstar's servers this mystery is (probably) solved.

[David]

Thanks Jedi and nutz, I didn't start this thread to bash ANY site. We see too much of that already. I will do as you suggest nutz and try and trace the IP's. I will do this in the next couple of days and report back. Are either one of you able to understand the information I get from Zonealarm in case I'm not? Also what I thought was really weird was that a GREAT % of the attempts came when I was playing 2/4 PL Omaha, but not 1/2 limit. I did this on purpose at the same sight yet such a big difference. That is what stunned me. If it had been consistent at Pokerstars no matter which game then I probably wouldn't have even posted this. I am definitely not one of the "net conspiracy kooks". Just trying to understand why.

[beernutz]

David, sure just post some of the alerts up here and I'll be happy to try and figure them out if you like.

[SoBeDude]

Try this:

When you go to bed tonight leave your PC on, and connected to the Internet. Close any and all poker apps.

I think you'll find that by morning, your firewall has stopped a number of access attempts.

If you have dialup, you'll have to run something to keep yourself from getting logged off, like a mail program with a short email-check period of less than 10 mintues between checking for new mail.

There are a large number of legit reasons for an access attempt, other than some guy in china trying to crack your PC.

Windows itself and Windows Networking are responsible for many of them.

See if you have a "more info" button when an alert pops up. If so , click it. I know Zone Alarm has this feature. It shows me what it is, and they are almost all (99%) a letigimate windows or windows networking task.

Here is an excerpt from the "alert" more info that I get all the time.

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ZoneAlarm prevented a remote computer from connecting to port 137 on your computer. This connection attempt was probably legitimate network traffic. Port 137 is commonly used by networked Windows computers to enable file sharing and other resource sharing.

Should I be concerned?

No. ZoneAlarm blocked the connection attempt, so no harm can come to your computer from it. However, blocking traffic on this port can keep you from sharing files and other resources with other computers on a Local Area Network (LAN). Also, Windows file sharing can represent a security vulnerability if you do not password-protect your shared files.
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I hope this helps!

-Scott