what is remote assistance?

[gator325]

hello - was bored and checking things on my PC - came across something called Remote Assistance that was checked under the Exceptions Tab in Windows Firewall.  i guess this allows users to access your PC from a remote location to help fix things - but can this be trouble in any way, like a back door for someone to access your PC without your knowledge?

thank you

[Jewels]

Yes and yes-lol You might want to remove that exception.

[gator325]

thank you jewels   i never used to be paranoid until my world of warcraft account was hacked.. now i am trying to learn as much as possible about security.  i unchecked this option earlier.  do you know why this would have been checked in the first place? is it a default setting for windows firewall?  and how would someone use this to gain access to my pc?

thank you!

[Patrick]

@gator325

Yes that is a default setting. You also need to turn off file and printer sharing (turned on by default).
You may want to look more into the things that you can turn on or off for more security.

[Jewels]

  and how would someone use this to gain access to my pc?

Well hackers know the default ports used for all of windows automatic exceptions, and they can scan your ports through your wireless network. They can exploit those in a variety of ways to get access to your pc - running scripts on a webpage, infecting torrents, email attachments, etc-the list goes on and on. If you want to check which ports are open on your pc, check out this service.

[cadean21]

on another note it can come in handy with those u trust. i personally dont use actual remote assist., i have used it out of msn live msg. works alright, good way to help ppl u know.


for those who dont know u can do it one way to view or another to take over. mouse may be a lil choppy dragin it around but its not to bad. also has a feature to type msgs to eachother right in the same window, so if ur not taking over and just viewing u can direct them to what they need to do and they can see it without flippin from window to window


takes a good 1-2 min to load up, doesnt lag net connection to bad. however i wouldnt be running limewire or nething while doing it lol

[justy]

thats a good point cadean21!  thanks for the input