Online Security

I am running Windows 98. I have McAfee Virus protection, McAfee Cleaner, McAfee firewall, and Zone Alarm Pro. I have a hard disk pass word and one user name for windows.

I use AOL as my ISP and then I tried Anonymizer.com.

I reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled everything fresh and he still got in.

He did initially have physical access to my computer but now he doesn't.

I tried to configure everything properly.

This guy hacks into my computer no matter what I do.

What can I do to keep him out?

Is he cracking you from the outside, or is he doing it physically at your computer? Also, what is he hacking? Your harddrive? Your software? Your AOL password?

He could be using a vulnerability that has been released and patched already. Make sure you update your OS as soon as you connect it to the Internet (or before, if you can). All the door locks in the heavens won't do any good if the windows are open (no pun intended). As soon as you are online, connect to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and get all the security patches available.

Also, if you are using a Win98 copy that he gave you, get another one, that might be the problem too.

I think the zone alarm, and the mcafee firewalls are a bit of a overkill. You only need one of them.

If he has physical access to your PC all the firewalls in the wolrd won't help you. lol

Just a bit more explanation is needed like pooh sun tzu and striek said.

Update your OS to Windows XP...... Also Kindly mention clearly as to how does the guy compromise ur sysytems....

As mentioned rightly by cheyenne1212 have tow personal firewalls personally is killing also u never know if the two firewalls could create a system conflict then u will find all ur programs bevaing erratically...

If he is using Social Engineering Techniques then all these lovely defence mechanism in place will be of no help to you..........

Also try patching and hardening your sytems with the latest available patches.....

Install Ad Aware or Spybot to tetect and Trojan related activities on ur PC.......

Let us know if this bit of advice so far has helped

There is no real reason for him to upgrade beyond Windows 98, especially since we do not understand his situation, nor if his machine can handle it. A windows 98 machine can be made just as secure as an XP machine, with just as much ease.

First we learn his situation, then we offer insights in how to help. Generalized security may be what got him into the mess in the first place, so let us focus instead, after he provides information, upon the specifics of his OS, BIOS, and setup.

edit: windows XP is also a hefty price, so choosing that as a base solution is not only expensive, but counter productive to solving the current problem. While he saves up to purchase XP, his 98 will still be vunerable, while instead we could secure his 98 machine and then let him worry about XP.

pooh sun tzu I agree that chagin OS is costly ....... But now that Microsoft has offically discontinued support for Win 98 it is always advisable to move to OS which has an active support available.........


Further if had read my reply it clearly stated

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If he is using Social Engineering Techniques then all these lovely defence mechanism in place will be of no help to you..........

Also try patching and hardening your sytems with the latest available patches.....

Install Ad Aware or Spybot to tetect and Trojan related activities on ur PC.......

Let us know if this bit of advice so far has helped

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I agree we dont have any clear indications of how that persumed hacker is compromising the system....

I guess hence we are giving some very broad based suggestions.....

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But now that Microsoft has offically discontinued support for Win 98 it is always advisable to move to OS which has an active support available

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My deepest apologies, as I had completely forgotten they had stopped support and updates for 95, 98 and 98SE. I see your point in a different light now.

Out of curiosity, are you on Dial-Up? I am interested in how he/she is getting your IP if it is dynamic.

Try not using 'unsafe' (ie; direct connection) IM programs, as that seems the only reasonable cause of your problem (unless it is over a LAN?)

Okay just one quick point. Spybot and adaware dont realy do a dmaned thing about trojans. You would want a program more like "the cleaner" or something. Just my $.02

There are plenty of reasons to upgrade the os to one such as xp or 2k pro. Not only is win 98 no longer supported by microsoft, but an operating system such as xp or 2k will give him greater security via the ntfs file system, real user accounts, auditing, etc.

Having more than one firewall on the pc is kind of silly. I'd focus on learning to configure one of them properly. One of my favorites is tiny personal firewall since it is fairly easy to configure and also has tripwire like functionality to get a hash of important operating system files to audit for changes.

How do you know your computer is being hacked?