"Scott in Baltimore" wrote in message
...


Jim Hampton wrote:
*Everyone* should have a firewall. If you aren't set up as invisible,
your
machine will respond to pinging.

Your machine is vulnerable without a firewall, *especially* if you are
on
broadband. Regardless, even a dial-up should have a good firewall as
well
as an anti-virus program running at all times whilst on the Internet.
It is
also a good idea to have an anti-spyware program as well.


I just have my cable/DSL router between my modem and PC's.

I find those programs cause more grief then they save.

Hello, Scott

Long time no hear. You have a hardware solution (the router) and it is an
*excellent* solution of course. I was speaking in generalities, of course,
and the hardware solution is actually the preferred solution. But no
solution can leave one very vulnerable. I just sent a URL to a neighbor to
run the on-line virus scan (house call). She had a problem before when a
"tech" reformatted her hard drive and didn't put the anti-virus nor firewall
in place.

She upgraded to XP and I had to inform her she wanted to set up an account
for herself as a user and not log in as administrator and leave the computer
on 24/7 (she is on cable).

Yep, Monday evening she told me she had problems again. The last time it
took me two trips over there and I am not doing it again. If she is still
capable of accessing the Internet, she can do the on-line scan and probably
pretty much fix the thing (for a short while). Hmmmm ... wonder if she
knows about system restore? I don't know; I do know that I'm not going
through that again (at least for free LOL). Come to think of it, I don't
really want to go over there again - regardless.


73 from Rochester, NY
Jim