Hi!At long last I'm going to get cabled-up and have broad(ish)band internet access allowing me to do all that 'on line stuff' that so many of you enjoy.My question is: I've got Norton antivirus. Do I need a firewall or any other security thingies?Any friendly advice much appreciated.Gavin

Viruses can be pretty insidious. One problem with them is that they can spread faster than Norton or Symantec or McAfee or any of the other antivirus organizations can come up with detectors or remedies.One of the easiest things you can do is install a router, which is primarily designed to allow all your computers to talk to each other and to the broadband system. I got one from Linksys for $50 on sale at Best Buy. These contain built-in firewall protection. Installation was plug-n-play for me.A firewall protects you against "active probing," in which a hacker tries to do things to your system from outside using a program running on his computer. A virus, on the other hand, is a program that gets on to your own computer and does damage from there. Typically, viruses are transmitted by e-mail and are contained in attachments.

Thanks for that!'Active probing' don't like the sound of that!! Out of curiosity, what would a hacker want to do on my system? Just malicious damage? I can't imagine they'd be interested in anything on my system. But something tells me i may be being a little nieve.Gavin

It would be nice if they (hackers) organized my files and deleted old emails that I dont need anymore...now i'm being nieve!! :-lolKilstorm

Gavin - Yes, unfortunately, a firewall is becoming needed more and more these days. We all really need something to block the BadGuys who are knocking at the door daily. If you are using WinXP the built-in firewall does an effective job of blocking incoming probes (just be sure it's turned on). But it does nothing to stop or inhibit the outgoing "phone home" type of activity - and that's the unwanted activity that's the real problem. The more "stuff" you download, the more vulnerable you'll be to something sneaking it's way onto your HDD and the more the need for the outgoing firewall protection. Most all the available firewalls do the same job, just be sure that whatever you choose blocks outgoing traffic. One freebie firewall that many people are using is ZoneAlarm ( www.zonelabs.com ). It does most everything needed and if you can run it without it interferring with your other programs it's definitely worth a try (the only way ot know if it'll work well on your system is to try it - no harm will be done). I've tried most of the commercial offerings and keep going back to Norton Personal Firewall. (The Norton firewall probably isn't "better" than many of the others but it gives me no interference with other programs on my system.) For more info just do a search on Google ( www.google.com ) and search on "firewall comparison" or something similar - you'll find lots to read. Trip

If you want to go the software route, get the best firewall available from www.agnitum.com.A hacker might not be interested in what is on your computer but he/she could use it to launch a denial of service attack where multiple computers simultaneous request information from a server and cause it to crash. See this: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,15199,00.asp

You'll have a much better feel for it the first time someone sneaks a 900-number porn-site dialer onto your system and you get a $5000 telephone bill :-) . And, yes, this type of thing happens to people every day. Another common "gotcha" is the BadGuy using your machine, e-mail program, and ISP connection to send out thousands of ads for porn sites, etc., - and all using your name and e-mail address on each and every copy. Guess what happens to your inbox when half of those reject and are returned. Yep, you really need a firewall that will block unwanted traffic, both incoming and, especially, outgoing.Trip

I got cable and got a router and Norton. Thought that would be plenty. Wrong, wrong, wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got hacked last week. Some SOB working on his tenth cup of coffee at 3:00AM with no life and no chance of a life. Thankfully, it wasn't my gaming rig. I don't use that for the internet other than downloading specific aircraft. What did he do to my computer?? He/she didn't mess any programs up as far as I can tell. He just started loading all kinds of unwanted files onto my machine. Mainly exe files which resulted in addons to my browser menus, disgusting popups, and other annoying shiit. I got adaware first from www.lavasoft.com . Found 442 tracking files, registry entries and exe files and other junk. Got rid of them only to later have more. Then I got zonealarm from www.zonealarm.com . That firewall stopped the little twit in his tracks. Still getting hits and but they're blocked now. Somehow he got hold of my IP address. Easy for a hacker to do even through the router firewall, if he's persistent enough, I guess. I also downloaded AVG virus scanner to run along side my Norton just in case. www.grisoft.com/html/us_index.htm . It's a free virus scanner and updates regularly in case your scanner is out of date. Now more troubles.

Thank you all very much!!Bl---y hell!! I'll get a firewall!Gavin

For most people its enough to use the free software such as zonealarm, theres also plenty of free antivirussoftware that is good. Dont waste your money on this crap, its completely out of proportions. I have 3 computers running all day and night, and in 8 years i have not had a virus or been hacked.OHN

OHNYou said: "Dont waste your money on this crap"I got cabled up on Tuesday, installed a Firewall on Wednesday and yesterday it blocked a Trojan Horse break in attempt.I mean no offence to you but I'm glad I ignored your advice. I hope you continue to have trouble free internet access.Gavin

Most folks probably don't take into consideration that you're much more vunerable when you have a cable or dsl hookup than a 56k dialup. With cable, you're hooked up to the internet 24/7 unless your computer is turned off. Also, cable is so fast that you won't even notice something coming in and installing on your computer. My wife runs kazzaa to download music. Ever since she installed that, will all three of my computers on a router, all kinds of stuff comes through the pipeline. Like I said above, when I got adaware and ran it, I found over 400 files on my computer that I never put there. Adaware quaranteened the little trouble makers. Computer runs much faster too since I did so. Since I installed zonealarm, I seldom see much anymore when I run adaware. Apparently, the router firewall just isn't enough.

>"Dont waste your money on this crap"Before I went ADSL and bought a router with hardware firewall, I could expect at least 2-3 hack attacks per night (so Norton I.S. told me, anyway, and as much as 26 times when one particular BAD GUY was feeling a little persistent). I've had the router about 6 months so far, and only one attempt has managed to reach my PC before being blocked by Norton.Crap?! Best thing I ever bought! BTW, forget Kazaa - it's infamous for its security issues, get WinMX (www.winmx.com)Cheers,Paulhttp://www.strontiumdog.plus.com/sbird.jpgOfficially licenced by British Airways plc for use of name and logo