You have found the problem with all software firewalls. They are not user friendly and require numerous leaps of faith. If you do not have a router with a hardware firewall, you can buy one for a few dollars and have a very good defense against incoming attacks. I have yet to find a software firewall for outgoing bad things that makes all the selections of what to block or allow an educated decision rather than a guess as you have found. I've noticed that over time the software is getting better, but the last time I tried them, they were still lacking in lay person explanations of what and why certain connections were being attempted. Tom Mayer [log in to unmask] wrote: > Greetings all, > > I just installed Kerio firewall and am purplexed as to what should or > shouldn't be allowed connection. I use AOL and assumed anything with AOL in the > name would be needed for my conection(???) so allowed them all as well as > anything relating to AVG and Avast. I denied access to such things as Real Player > and Internet Explorer (since I only use Opera as a browser). I also get > messages that an address (of the numerical type) is trying to send packets to > Kerio on my machine. (OK?) > > While attempting to write this I have been interrupted by several > connection attempts such as; > > 222.161.2.9 port44429 wants to connect to port 1026 owned by "SYSTEM" on > your computer > > And; > > ISMMODULE2.EXE from my computer to 76.9.9.190 port 80 > > If I don't understand it, I don't allow it. But since I fail to understand > most of what's displayed, I fear to create a rule against some benign, needed > connection so end up denying over and over! > > I guess I'm asking if there is an 'easy' way to learn what these different > request are really associated with so I can determine what to allow. > > Many Thanks, > -Phillip Williams- > > > > > > The NOSPIN Group has added a new feature on our website, web based bulletinboard for questions and answers: Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com