Protecting multiple network connections/History message explanation

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

Hello

 

Whilst poking around in the NIS 2011 security history I noticed that when I boot up my PC(s) Norton ends up showing 3 different network connections.

 

I:E for this morning:

 

8:37 Connected to a shared network. ( my router's MAC address)

8:37 Connected to a protected network. (xxx.0.0.0/xxx.0.0.0)       (x's instead of numbers)

8:39 Connected to a protected network. (::0)

 

My network 'trust' is set on shared so I'm not sure why two show up as protected. Essentially I'm sure it's all normal I'm just wondering if someone could explain what it actually means.

2

It looks to me as iff the second item is a protected internal loopback, which allows the machine to talk to itself and which would normally remain protected.

 

The second appears to be an IPv6 connection which is a protocol not in use as yet.  It will be coming soon, and most newer routers, ISP's etc are getting set up to handle it.  Since it is not required and not in use, it is also protected.

3

127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 and ::0 are both Localhost.  As delphinium said, the first is an IPv4 address and the second is IPv6.