Fireall alert?

[thor]

Didn't know where to ask this...figured here would be best. Running Windows98. Proxy server in place also but not used on host machine for connection, only to share internet with other LAN machine.

I'm running a firewall on my LAN, and am getting the following alert.

Unauthorized Access detected on UDP Port 138 from [my own computer's internal IP address]

I'm not overly concerned about this, but it's happening so often I'm curious about what it is. It looks to me that my computer is contacting a name server, but I'm not sure.

I could enable that port, I think so the alerts don't happen, but didn't want to do that without knowing what it's doing.

Any interpretations or help?

[Arthur]

UDP Port 138 is used for the NETBIOS Datagram Service. Windows uses it together with port 139 for file sharing across the network.
It's best if you uninstall File Sharing from the external NIC (the one that's connected to the Internet) and only use TCP/IP on that interface.
Arthur

[thor]

Thanks. I "think" I understand what you are saying...now I have to figure out how to do that!

(actually, I just tried to disable file sharing, but the problem is if I disable on one card, it disables all cards, including the one that serves my LAN)

[Arthur]

It's been a while since I used 98, but I think you just need to make sure that NetBEUI is not linked to the external card, only TCP/IP.