Why do I get so many intrusion alerts?

I am using Norton Internet Security on Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed. Every 5 seconds I get a Norton alert message: High Risk, A remote system is attempting to access your computer. Are all of them really hacker attempts or is Norton interpreting legit connections wrongly?

 

Depending on the application running in the background at the time of the alerts, the access requests and reverse access requests could have been legit. Firewall programs are known to give false alerts due to their intended functionality this is normal. You would need to examine each access request to see....if alerts becoming annoying and you found out that they are legit, you could turn the alerting function off. Depending on the firewall you are using you could also add the legit programs on the 'safe list' so they wouldn't cause false alerts. I am not familiar with Norton but someone who knows about it could provide help on detailed configuration.Also check the program's 'help' menu or Norton's website.

Additionally: Make sure your system is free of malwares though! Spyware and Trojan infections could be the cause of it.

 

. What is most likely happening is you are getting port scans from outside your network. This is normal activity. Is it legit activity? most of it isn't . People like to port scan for open pc's.. worms get in this way etc. What Norton should do , is do it's job and be slient about it. You should read logs about the activity and that's about it. A lot of these programs are over sensitive and want to you see "Hey, I'm working here.. see see? look at me blocking all this stuff!" which is on a scale that you can't comprehend. You can easily get 100's of thousands of port scans each day and not be the wiser.

Don't be paranoid about it, but be alert.