firewalls?

im having problems with hackers. will adding more firewalls help solve that issue or is there something else that i might need?

 

No if the computer has more than one firewall running at the same time, they will conflict with each other and that will defeat the purpose of a firewall

Pick a good firewall.
I personally would recommend ZoneAlarm, or Norton
their firewall is top notch

 

Yeah I agree with tonythetiger. Also I suggest you be behind a router so you can mask your real IP address.

 

I would Agree with Tony , But i would suggest Comodo FW

 

No, adding more firewalls will NOT be helpfull.
However, even the best of firewalls are useless if hackers already have penetrated your notebook and gained control.
If you are not certain that you can clean your notebook from spyware, keyloggers and especially rootkits, the best thing to do is to copy all important files to external media (CD/DVD/USB, ext. HD) and do a complete reinstall.

It will take you (half) a day but then you can be sure that you are safe and that your notebook is not being used to distribute spam or worse filth.
Are you using wireless? If so, make sure that's well set up to.
Cheers.

 

That's a general statement. How do u know you've been hacked? Do u mean u actually "see" someone on ur wireless network via your router or it's strange stuff happening on ur computer?

Edit: And theoretically speaking I will think the more firewalls you have will help...meaning; hardware and software firewalls. You will need to configure ur network w/ some good security mechanisms...such as MAC filtering, WPA security, limiting the range/scope of IP addresses that's being distributed. (all of this should be configured on the router)

For the computer itslef, get something like Panda Antivirus and Comodo Firewall.

 

Please describe in more detail

 

ok first off im connected through ethernet and i know somebody has hacked into my laptop because for one the setting keep changing when i boot it up and two half the time when i turn my laptop on there is an extra network connected to my laptop that blocks me from any internet use. its not wifi related because its turned off and i know its not a temporary glitch in the internet because ive been having this problem off and on since the start of summer. before i could just disable the network for a while and the extra network would just go away. not anymore. now im getting it only after resetting it a few times.
ive run the anti-nod scanner several times in hopes of picking something up and removing it but it always turns up empty. i am going to try using zonealarm next as well as norton to see if they can find anything. if you have anymore suggestions on how i could rid myself of this problem or how i could better secure my laptop in the future please feel free to post

thank you for all your help so far

 

What is this "extra network" you speak of?

What type of settings change?

Are you in a Home setting?

What type of Internet service do you use? (DSL to one computer?)

As I mentioned above you should try software like Panda and Comodo firewall. (You can look in the Security section of the forum for other recommendations)

If the situation is that bad, I would save all the files I can and re-install the OS! Not forgetting to re-install antivirus/firewall programs.

 

a FACTORY RESET of your router would be smart also,,,, and then change the default IP #s and passwords (do this after cleaning the system if you are hacked/infected via RAT or ROOTKIT)

 

Would you please enter this command at a command prompt the next time you have this extra network:

ipconfig /all >C:\IPCA.TXT

Then post the contents of the file C:\IPCA.TXT here.

 

its just an extra network that connects when it trying to identify the campus network. the default is business network setting and i have to change it to home setting to get internet but it switches back to business every i close my laptop.
also how would i go about reseting the ip #s?
and im a little wary of giving out that kind of information over a forum to someone i dont even know. no offense but this whole ordeal has made me a bit paranoid

 

Sure. I understand. However, the only networks that are available to you are:

• Wireless, which you say you do not have
• Ethernet
• 192.168.xxx.xxx, a local network
• 224.0.0.0, a dead-end network
• 127.0.0.1, your local "home" address

It reads as if you have a home network and a business network. You probably want to set them both to not connect automatically and explicitly connect to the one you choose at the time.

 

I don't understand...what OS are you running OP? From what i'm reading it sounds like .Vista. And when you connect to a network it usually ask you if it's a Home, Workplace, Institution etc. You should choose Institution seeing that you are on a campus setting. If you set it to home then you're asking for trouble...and this could be the root of your issues. You still should be able to connect to the Internet w/ it set to that. .Vista was deliberately set up in this way for security purposes, which is a very good thing IMO...setting it to home is basically saying hey look at me, i'm home where any computer on the network is safe to play and talk with. Whereas workplace and institution type networks will be treated more cautiously. Now if you're not using .Vista and that's not what you're talking about, then I have no idea what you're talking about in that last post concerning this "extra" network.