[X-Newbies] Hen-Wen

[Randy B.Singer]

Chris Walker said:

>More out of curiosity than anything else I decided to try the freeware
>HenWen to see if my home network is being attacked.  They say a little
>knowledge is dangerous, but here we go....   The log produced the following:
...
>I guess I'm none the wiser but it does look as if someone is doing a
>scan.  Since my machine is behind a hardware firewall how can this be so?
> Presumably HenWen can only scan what is happening behind the firewall or
>am I wrong?
>
>Could one of the experts on this list give me a rundown on what is
>happening please?

Most of the products that are designed to detect "attacks" via the 
internet will give self-serving reports of attacks.  I guess that some of 
the reports could be bad guys looking to hack into your computer.  Or 
rather, they are looking for Windows computers to hack into, as they are 
only familiar with the backdoors to Windows computers to gain access.  

But more likely those reports are innocuous things like your own ISP 
checking to see that you aren't running a server (contrary to your 
contract with them), or your software phoning home and communicating with 
the mothership to see if you need an update.




Randy B. Singer
Co-Author of: The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th and 6th editions)

Routine OS X Maintenance and Generic Troubleshooting
http://www.macattorney.com/ts.html