Microsoft® Windows® XP Networking and Security Inside Out: Also Covers Windows 2000

Identifying Intruders

If you carefully monitor every unsolicited outside attempt to connect to your computer or network (some third-party personal firewalls pop up a message box at each attempt), you'll soon be overwhelmed at the sheer number of "attacks." Don't be alarmed. Most of the intrusion attempts are random port scans launched by software robots, and they're routinely rebuffed by your firewall. In fact, after you reassure yourself that a steady stream of unsuccessful intrusion attempts is perfectly normal, you'll probably want to disable those automatic alerts.

That doesn't mean you should completely ignore evidence of intrusion, however. Most personal firewall programs (including Windows Firewall) maintain a log of blocked connections ...