I currently running Window XP with Sygate firewall installed. This shows me a list of applications with their connections, the connection status, protocol, port number etc.

My questions are, how does this program know this information ? Are there raw log files located somewhere in the system files showing all connections or what ? If so is there anyway to manaully view this log file?. Also how much should i trust that all connections in and out and being shown to me ?

I know there are alot of questions there, but they have been playing on mind for a while. Any help would be great. Thanks alot.