>On security, I found that I was attacked by more than 10 people just around
>1 week after I installed BlackICE. It is probably around 2-3 times per
>night, more frequent in the weekend. I can see their domain names, IP
>addresses, but what can I do about it? Can I counter-attack them?

Remember cable modems make you in effect part of local area network. Those
"attacks" may be Win network neighborhood "hellos" to identify you and add
you to the "neighborhood". Also folks with pcAnywhere tend to be
promiscuous with their pinging to also get to know folks in the
neighborhood - they are not malicious it's just the way pcAnywhere is by
default.

If you believe the attacks to true attacks - multiple ports probed at
multiple times then you can always email the admin at the sending ISP  and
your ISP and complain nicely,  giving the IP address, date, time and
details. Be nice to them and then can help you.
Attacking them may escalate into matters you don't want to get involved
with and may get you kicked off your cable.

You must remember that the default for Win TCP/IP and most comm programs is
to be promiscuous and try to talk and interact with every other machine on
the network.

The slow down during prime time hours is the hallmark of cable modems, too
many people on the network and things slow to a crawl. As people head off
to sleep and other activities things pick up.  I remember early on the
magic number was around 32 users and things would crawl.  I would expect
that as fiber optic cables gets closer and closer to your wall jack that
this would go away. But then again maybe not.

As for ADSL I'm getting close to 50k/sec for $30/month. No slow downs
except when the net as a whole is slow (new quake being released today?) or
when a site is busy. Otherwise very happy with the speed.  Lot easier to
move around the house too.


!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!
Patrick Meyer
A French Norman in a foreign land,
pining for the fjords.

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