[Gllug] Router under attack: help/advice needed

[Walter Stanish]

> My home broadband router has started telling me I am under attack

It's evident from the language you used that you're not really
experienced with network security, so here's a brief note to
help you relax.

Automated attacks are a normal feature of the modern internet,
they're only a problem if you haven't properly secured your
gateway system.  If you are using a router issued by your
internet provider then you almost certainly have nothing to
worry about here.

You should not expect your ISP to respond to these sorts of
issues as they occur all the time and are likely coming from
sources other than the IP addresses you are seeing in your
alerts.

Basically it's 99% likely to be nothing to worry about, and
there's nothing that can really be done to stop such things
happening.

General rules: 
 - use a well tested firewall configuration
 - run as few services as possible
 - don't make yourself a target
 - worry more about your internal systems .. in particular,
   make sure you use virus/malware scanning tools on any
   windows systems you have installed, and keep them up to
   date as much as possible.

If you are interested in network security then I would recommend
familiarising yourself with TCP/IP protocol suite as an initial
step, so that you can analyse network traffic yourself instead of
relying on automated alerts (which, whilst well-meaning, have 
a lot of trouble determining relative significance of network
events).  This is a serious time commitment, but can be very 
interesting for the curious!
 
- Walter
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