can someone spy on my laptop offsite?

Question

one of the programs on my computer indicated that i had an unsuccessful attempt to access my computer through a port etc. when i had the ip address traced it was as far away as japan, china, australia. what does this mean? someone is hacking into my computer from overseas?

Answer 1

The destination is often irrelevent unless you plan to get really involved in the "who's responsible" side of things. Sniffers, hackers will often use innocent ip's as a staging point. As a result, an "access attempt" could conceivably originate from the computer next door while appearing to have come from Japan.

As far as the access attempt - in this case it sounds like your program stopped the attempt.

When automated attempts are made, they are generally not directed at a specific computer - more often, they are simply attempting to find open ports. Your software advised you of the attempt, however as far as the sniffer (the program attempting to gain access through your ports) was concerned - there was no response. (Assuming you have a decent firewall setup - which, in your case, appears to be the case)

Answer 2

"spyware" is a class of computer program that can record your activities and send them to another person.

however it sounds more like someone is using an automated tool to attempt to gain entry to your computer.

this actually happens every second, and this is why it is very important to got to http://WindowsUpdate.MicroSoft.com and keep your programs updated to prevent attacks of this kine from being successful.