Firewall 101

[powermac]

Using a PB with Tiger airport extreme and external Hard Drive (FW)
I have the firewall on, and nothing is checked to allow communication. Moreover, I have Block UDP Traffic, Enabled firewall logging, Enable stealth mode.
My questions is some time my external HD starts up without me actually access it (My just be the system using). Also, occasionally I check the firewall log. Frequently I get messages like this one:

PowerBook ipfw: Stealth Mode connection attempt to TCP 10.0.3.5:49392 from 216.21.215.29:80
or
PowerBook ipfw: 35000 Deny UDP 24.98.216.75:6346 10.0.1.3:33059 in via en1

I know my PB and airport network are the 10.0.1.3 numbers. What are the other ones. I trace routed one ip address to a company at http://domain@falkag.com/

My question is simply. Are people accessing my computer ?

 

[Satcomer]

Yep. This happen from the net almost every minute every day. Script hackers are looking for open ports on the net with automatic scripts. This is why someone needs to run a firewall. Two firewalls are better than one because layered security discourages most all security hacks.

The import thing is set you router with a unique password, one that doesn't use common words or personal dates, etc. Also use small & capital letters with at least two non-letters. Plus set your firewall not to reply to outside pings.

Now if you want to some popular apple products on the net you can go to the Apple document "Well Known" TCP and UDP Ports Used By Apple Software Products and open those ports on your firewall when you need to.