Alright, I have a hardware firewall, which basically completely keeps my LAN invisible on the internet, well pretty close anyways. Cause I know nothing's really 100% safe at any time... I also have a little software firewall running on my computer... I just wanted to ask a little question... If you don't have any trojens, virii, etc... Can a hacker get into your comp? Say you've been to just about every firewall, port tester, IP scanner, etc, that you can find and all of them say your nice and secure, can a hacker find his way into your comp in someway? I ask this because I recently got a cable modem, I'm all firewalled, virii scannered, patched, etc that I can even manage to think of, and this kid at my school actually ASKED me if he could have my IP number so he could see if he could hack me!! Of course I was like you've got to be kidding me. He actually said, I'd just put a little text file on your desktop that says "HEY YOU'VE BEEN HACKED!" Anyways, I was just wondering, if someone like this was to get my IP could this be possible? Because as far as I know I can't think of one darn way to get into my comp right now. (Although I know there is always someone out there that probably could do it.) I'm just curious... Is there anything else I can do to protect myself? So far I haven't managed to find any security scanner that can get any info off my computer on my network. I considered setting my stuff up on an anonymous proxy to go even further. Is there a way to hide my IP, or what's it called? "Spoof" my ip so people can't even see it? Isn't that what spoofing is? I'm not sure. I never said I was a hacker myself, I just want SECURITY... Anyways, thanks ahead of time...

Hello Quadraphonicus, Of course hackers can get through a firewall as fast as you opened yourself your computer to the hacking failure. A trojan virus is composed of two parts: 1) the spread, when you open a suspicious email with attached files as DOC documents corrupted, some of the trojan's use the email address book of a corrupted computer to spread via all addresses found, and you believe it's a friend which write to you. 2) the worm, which is the hiden part of the virus which ude your internet connexion to call the hacker and tell him your computer is ready to obey to any sollicitation on request. When you have the worm installed, no firewall can protect anymore !!! since you are already corrupted... and believe me, the hardest problem is not to destroy the virus itself, but the worm hidden somewhere in your hard disk. That's why I suggest since time to use a specific program wonderful to prevent the Trojan betrayal : Trojan Remover 4.91 This program is the only one in the market to detect the both part of a trojan virus: The spread and the worm, and destroy both of them, then to restore your original configuration as it was before the corruption. Trojan Remover detects today 6168 unique trojan's signatures. you find this program at: http://www.simplysup.com/tremover/details.html NO hesitation, test it to be sure you are clean now, then be careful to never open a suspicious email with attached files like Doc.doc. terminology and you will never get any problem anymore. A virus known is not anymore a betrayal....

if you give someone your ip address, then probaby yes, they can run a script, that will hack your pc. on the otherside, if they don't know your ip address, it is very unlikely to get hacked, unless you get infected by a trojan, that you allow acess to the internet. the weakness to a firewall, can be through a backdoor, when using irc or an instant messenger.

Yep...you can be hacked..!! and the kid putting up the file on ur desktop saying "YOU HAVE BEE HACKED"...is a work of a trojan infected on ur computer get a trojan remover and get rid of it....and YES there is many ways to get to your computer..without torjans..with a IP address throught the ports...(EVEN CLOSED PORTS)...

i've had several software firewalls, and i was hacked (win xp, or at least the home version, is not very security minded...even disabling the guest account doesn't happen...it only hides it from the welcome screen). hackers can exploit vulnerabilities...perhaps your favorite chat program has a hole, or a web browser really isn't safe. your firewall is set to allow certain valid traffic, so if a hacker exploits a vulnerability of a program that can access the net, your firewall will just think it's valid traffic. If someone has your ip address, then all they know is how to reach your computer. they then have to probe your computer's firewall to see which ports are accessible, etc. NetBIOS might be on, etc, etc.

If you have been hacked/infected by a trojan horse,get an anti-trojan program.You can find reviews and trail downloads at wilders.org.I checked that web site before downloading the AT programs that I tried.I ended up buying one than buying a more advanced program recently.You have many choices of good anti-trojan progams.There are some companies that don't charge you again when a new version is released.Updates are always free after you purchase an AT also.Hope this helps.JB

He didnt say that the kid put the text on the desktop he just said thats what he would do. And with your hardware firewall u will be pretty safe.