Windows 7: Port Scanning

I had a series of port scans this evening, which I determined were done by my cable provider. Is there any legitimate reason why this needs to be done?

I think (it's possible) ISPs can search for torrents.

Maybe, but I just checked and all of the ports listed are unassigned, except 3 that are dynamic and or private, with no further description given. The only torrent that I ever use is 8901, when using TVU Player, so the others appear to be unrelated.

Which ports were checked?

If you click on the screenshot in my OP, you will see most of them listed in the Attack Type column.

it's almost impossible to read if you don't have a zoom function

44530, 47090, 47346, 47602
48882, 49650, 49906, 49394
12481, 12737, 12993, 13246

Your ISP is Cox? NetRange70.167.150.0 - 70.167.151.255
Those Portscans aren't run by Cox themselves but by someone who has his account with Cox just like you.
Just because they are assigned that 70.167.150.0 - 70.167.151.255 block doesn't mean they use it themselves

The second Block 94.0.0.0 - 94.255.255.255 is from GB and is assigned to VirginMedia.net
Apparently a UK-ISP

I don't recognize any of those ports. so I assume, somebody plays with a script and doesn't really know what they're doing
-DG

I agree. The ports are unassigned.

http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers

Don't know what they could be looking for.

Hmm, I ran Sam Spade on the IPs and they only pointed to Cox. If it were another account holder, wouldn't it point to him, rather than just Cox?

What if you ran Sam Spade on your IP. What would it show? It would not show a user name.

Try this with your ip address:

WHOIS Lookup for Domain & IP Address Research | Whois Source

and the found ip.

Is it similar?