Ok, you have heard all about the new virus and windows RPC exploit that caused all the problems everyone is having. The virus everyone got that wasn't behind a firewall and there port 135 was open to the internet. You know, the Blaster virus. Well I didn't get it, and it wasn't because of my trusty Norton Anti-Virus program, it was because I was behind a router/firewall and had my ports closed.

Ok, so where did everyone go wrong. Well, it's all about information. If you don't know, you don't do anything about it. People didn't fix the DCOM RPC exploit that Microsoft announced about 3 weeks before Blaster showed up, because they didn't know about it.

So what do you do different now? Well, for first 1) make sure you have a hardware router/firewall. A router firewall like this Linksys BEFSR-41 Yes I said hardware. Software firewalls are problems, they ask questions that most people don't understand, and they are higher maintenance then hardware firewall. Next 2) you need to do all your updates to your Windows on a regular basics (read 2 times a week).

If you do these two things or have someone do them you will be ok. This is where Solutions With Service comes in -- or some other good consultant firm. It would probable be in order to have a tech come into your office and give you an evaluate of your anti-virus protection.

Ok a bit more information on the routers, firewalls, and ports while I have you here. A firewall/router by the way looks much like a hub or switch. It has a RJ-45 ethernet connection that is marked WAN and connects to your Cable or ADSL modem, and 1 or more RJ-45 ethernet connections that are marked LAN and either hook to your computers or to another hub/switch that connects to your computers. So when you install the router, the people from the internet see your router WAN IP (IP is the x.x.x.x numbered address every ethernet connection has), and not the IP addresses of your computers.

So what difference does it make now that they can't see my computers IP address. Well when you run TCPIP (read internet) aware services/programs, it opens up ports. If you run a web server its port 80, if you run a ftp server so people can download files it is port 21, and so on. Well there are other applications that run and open up ports and one of them is DCOM RPC. It just happens to be you don't want people to see you port 135. Number 1 there is no reason for them to and number 2 if they can see it, there is an exploit that in the Windows operating system that allows hackers or attacking programs to gain controll of your computer system and infect it with a virus.

Ok here is a few URLs that have information for you.

Here is Norton's Fix it tool for the Blaster virus.

For Windows XP/ME you want to turn off System Restore.

How to start in Safe Mode if you can't remove the virus.

Test your port 135.

Here is MicroSofts page on Blaster.

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