Firewall Question

Software & Apps
#1

Hi all…Since my net connection slowed down dramatically over the past few weeks, one of my friends hinted I needed a firewall(I did not use it before as I’m on a slow dialup and hate losing bandwidth), and I started using Tiny Personal Firewall.

I switched logging on, and it keeps saying

"Rule: TCP Ack Packet Attack:Blocked <some IP addresses> :localhost:<address>:owner: no owner

Should I get worried over this and if so, Why? Please clarify(Though I’ve worked with computers since a Sharp PC-7100, I’m relatively new to the net and very new to firewalls.)

Thank you in advance.

#2

Drop in on the usnet server, “news.grc.com” and visit the software group with this question, there’s a load of knowledge there.

#3

Thankx… will do so.

#4

The TCP protocol uses a “three-way handshake” to set up an end-to-end connection before data flows as shown:-

Assume client ‘C’ wants to establish a connection to server ‘S’. C firstly sends a SYN packet (a TCP packet with the SYN bit set) to S. The server S then replies with a SYN/ACK packet (both SYN and ACK bits set), allowing S to complete the three-way hand-shake with a TCP ACK packet.