arno-iptables-firewall

[Forester]

There is one big name company

Not Wikileaks then.

that is always listed on my http connections,

That doesn't sound normal. I guess you are streaming television.

But I am certain they are cataloguing and planting bots for all those happy-go-lucky users without a care.

Big Brother then.

Actually I think the way it works is some patsy runs a program for a buck and hour that does the probing and cataloguing of vulnerable sites. The program reports back to the tech guy who plants bots at a later date. The tech guy sells lists of infected IP addresses to the really bad guys.

They used to trace my http back, and then begin searching for open ports using about 10 to 20 different connections from the same server, and tie up all my resources. The syn floods have stopped as well.

The attack sounds classic. Through your http connection they can tell you are using a Mozilla based browser - it's in the protocol. Perhaps they can also tell you're running Linux. Perhaps they assume Linux users are complacent and therefore likely to be vulnerable.

This might not make scientific sense, but it does happen.
Some time nuisance seems the objective - for me.

That won't be the objective. The objective might not be criminal but you really want to keep out of it. I could image a 'security' firm being tempted to do research this way, Likewise I can see Ebay being concerned about folks with a Paypal account and a vulnerable PC. I could also imagine government agencies preparing for the cyberwar they believe is coming.

Anyway, I'm just glad you are protected now. Myself, I'd never go near that site again. But that's just me.