Scary firewalls

[Scarlett]

I am freaked out by what my firewall tells me- that a computer somewhere is making unsolicited connections to TCP port 1080 on your computer. And that person always seems to come from Southwark!!

Please can anyone tell me what is actually happening? Is it a naughty man sitting at a PC in southwark, and if so, how on earth does he know how to get into my PC?

[bluejonjo]

Are you on an unencrypted wireless network?

[Scarlett]

Sorry, what does that mean? I am on AOL..

[bluejonjo]

A wireless router is a piece of HARDWARE not software, so it wont matter if your on AOL or LOL. It allows you to access the interent without cables. If you dont secure the wireless connection people can highjack the conection and connect to the internet. If you, like you say, have a fire wall, then it should stop people from doing it. But you might get a message if someone tries to connect. This is all only going to be relevant if you also live in Southwalk, then it could be one of your thrifty neighbours. If not, then I'd do a spybot scan for virus' and malware. And also let AOL know.

[OBonio]

You will usually get someone trying to connect to your PC. That's why firewalls are so common place nowadays. If you're firewall picked it up, then I'd assume it also just ignored the connection so nothing will have happened.

Port 1080 is a common port for proxy servers to use (servers that can anonymise and mask people's real IP addresses) hence I would assume this person in Southwark (how do you know this?) is looking for open proxy servers by scanning a lot of IP addresses on port 1080. Your IP just happens to be in that range.

[Scarlett]

OBonio- If you click on one of the examples it has found, it come up with the location. But 99% of the time the location is Southwark- ie- London.

[OBonio]

If it tells you the IP address aswell of the person, post it here. I'll look into it some more.

It could be that it is a compromised machine itself and is set to constantly scan for proxy servers on the AOL IP range....