Yes, but the program is seldom used. I've used it twice since formatting, and only to get 2 well know Unreal Tournament movies that I can't find elsewhere, ( not even on levitation-gaming). I've scanned everything that I've downloaded with Avast! before running anything, DivX, Ventrilo, mIRC, nnscript, peerguardian, firefox, filezilla, x-netstat, netstat agent. Those are the only programs I've downloaded. All have been scanned and passed through Avast!. I had just reformatted..
Thanks for sharing your opiniong alanrf, do you suggest I uninstall the p2p ?
I've looked into spyware removal tools and found Ghost Buster. I ran that and it found the trojan (a trojan is a virus right? why didn't avast catch it?) : Trojan.Win32.Patched.m
Ghost Buster is a Spyware removal tool but a Trojan is a virus to my knowledge, (if someone could clear that up if I'm wrong) but it wouldn't remove it since I only have the trial version. The path it found the trojan in was C:\Windows\system32\winlogin.exe
If you look at all the applications and DLL files it was listening with (My netstat -ab reports) winlogin.exe uses some of those files to function. It kind of all makes sense. I have a trojan, Avast didn't detect it, and all this energy spent on trying to find out why the heck someone is listening on my ports is at least validated.
One of you did the Netstat -ab and gave me your results. That was a clean Netstat right there, and that's how most pc's should be secure.
I've gone and and beyond with this, I've learned a lot too, and after more than 10 years of using microsoft products, I'm switching to Linux or Mac. I will try out both first to see which I prefer of course.
Microsoft sells you an operating system that is not finished. The product, is not finished. There's no muffler on your car, there's no roof on your house, and there's holes everywhere in your operating system when you run Windows. XP was most likely it's best operating system, WindowsME being the poorest (I'd rather run windows 3.1)
Why do you think you have hundreds of updates when you have windows?
Because they sell you something that's unfinished, but they have the courtesy to patch the things that THEY find. Imagine all the stuff they DON'T find.
After re-installing Windows XP, the first day I have 28 updates. The second, 90 updates. The third, 10 updates... I didn't count how many there were in total but apparently it's still going. It's not only security updates for your operating system, it's for other microsoft products such as IE and Explorer and registry fixes or what have you. These are serious holes and serious issues. If you want to run windows you need: A) A firewall, B) An anti-virus, C) A router if you can B) Spyware removal tools C) Registry Cleaner/fixer etc etc etc.
They sell you this crap for 300$ a CD (When the OS just came out, windows sold for 350$ a CD at futur shop).
Linux is FREE.
Do some research of how many people on linux have problems with viruses and trojans and spyware and malware and i-ware (heh). Do some research on how many people have problems with viruses and trojans and spyware and malware with Macintosh computers.
It took me 10 years to wake up and smell the freaking coffee. I've been up to date throughout all these years as much as I could with protecting myself while operating a Windows operating system, and I'll have none of it no more.
I've banged my head in walls and tried to protect myself for years, when I don't really have to. If I buy a mac, sure it's expensive, but they have the fastest processors, and they are the best when it comes to graphics, which is great for a gamer like me. I also get the friendly GUI that windows has, but without all it's holes. Or, I can try Linux, a FREE operating system with one freaking millionth of Windows' vulnerabilities, and have a more "raw" GUI, and have to do things more manually or through WINE.
Either way, I'm not sticking with microsoft. Good riddance.