(no subject)

[vicarz]

Crap - I have to pay for my account and it's not accepting my payment because it thinks "Your IP address (151.200.140.91) is detected as an open proxy (a common source of fraud) so access to placing orders is denied."

It's friggin Verizon DSL...grr...

NEVERMIND - it inexplicably now takes it. Yay, I'm paid up.

Comments

[dnaspydir.livejournal.com]

well, then i just have a few questions...

1 Do you have a router?
2 If not, are you running a firewall?
3 Are you running anti-virus software (and updating it)?

If you answered NO to any or all of those questions, then you have probably had an open proxy installed on your machine by a trojan. if so, get some anti-virus software (www.pandasoftware.com has a web one that's pretty good) and scan your entire system including email, next get something like adaware (sp?), and scan for spyware/adware.

Bad vicar, bad bad... (you'll recover)

Re:

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I know what a router is, but I have updated Norton AV and I use the free version of zone alarm. I have run adaware recently, but it always just finds cookies and the like.

I get secure connections with the bank and all that, so it might just be LJ being weird or something? Or could I have a trojan?

Re:

[dnaspydir.livejournal.com]

well, you could check the running services... a running smtp service would be a dead give away, but I would expect a trojan to have it hidden.. try running pandasoftware.com's online active scanner, it should find even new trojans (they update the sig files at least once every day). it's pretty good, just make sure you uncheck the "send me the email news letter" crap so ya don't get on their ad list.

Re:

[dnaspydir.livejournal.com]

oh, and zone alarm is a firewall, but it may not tell you about ports that are opened from the inside (which is what a trojan would do). most firewalls prevent ports from being opened from outside. to detect them being opened from the inside, you would need to check for rootkits, and/or setup a separate IDS (Intrusion Detection System). with all that said, security is a pain in the ass, but you don't want to use a sledge-hammer to drive in a thumb-tack either.