Why I am never hit with worms?

[t_biggs]

I hear a lot about people who often are infected with worms on a new installation of XP, before they even have a chance to patch the system to protect against them. Now, at least every 6 months, I reformat and do a fresh install of XP. Currently I use a SP-1 slipstreamed CD I made. Not once have I been hit with a worm. Why is this? Is it that I have SP-1 on it already? Or is it my router is protecting me somehow? I just find it strange that other people get infected before they can protect themselves, but I have not once had a problem.

 

[mbentley]

I hear a lot about people who often are infected with worms on a new installation of XP, before they even have a chance to patch the system to protect against them. Now, at least every 6 months, I reformat and do a fresh install of XP. Currently I use a SP-1 slipstreamed CD I made. Not once have I been hit with a worm. Why is this? Is it that I have SP-1 on it already? Or is it my router is protecting me somehow? I just find it strange that other people get infected before they can protect themselves, but I have not once had a problem.

my guess would be your router. the router simply drops the packets because they don't have a destination because the necessary ports are hidden or blocked by your router.

 

[thecondor]

It's definitely the router for stuff like Blaster and Sasser. These programs, like mbentley says, depend on open ports to infect your computer. The router essentially blocks this from happening. However, it does nothing for worms that are spread by e-mail, especially pop3 accounts. many of the more popular webmails like Yahoo have blocking
software. POP3 accounts are usually pretty naked so you have to have
security fixes and good sense to stay worm free.