Well, i heard that McAfee has a good firewalling service. But it is not free...

A good free firewall is zonealarm:

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0...05-110-7491491

Morgwen

Ignore scans... if you get less than 100 an hour you aren't being targetted, I have noticed recently a higher number of 137-9 scans (sigh) so there is a new post on some AOL L337 h4xor page labelled "G|\|OO73114 K|!3|\|75 345! /\/\337" Euurgh I hate Leet that shows that by running a modified client it will set a job lot of wi***b scripts running Scan 139, look for open share, String length password confirmation bug, the usual, who cares, what are they going to find, probably the most illegal or incriminating files on your pooty are those that you are sharing

I Have AV software not on auto protect (sorry my CPU has better things to waste cycles on) any files I DL are manually scanned if an at risk Group Exes Archives etc (gonna have to add .asf to this list if people keep arseing around with the scripting features)

although I have a firewall it isn't used when sharing (mostly cause xolox seems to hate it) I use ZA keeps the kiddies out (99.99999 % of all hack attempts are the P433r M3 1337 h4x0r type, that wouldn't know an IP address if it was traced to thier dial up node, trust me I work for an ISP, most of the time all the IS guys have to do is monitor astalavista for new exploit posts and the script kiddy R00/\/\z for new (aka renamed) scripts, plant a few honey traps and most are stopped at our end of things,

if you want security run smoothwall or get a firebox, if like me security is important but not worth shelling 3-8k on a proper hardware solution, stay off the road and beware of the moon... hang on I mean scan reasonably regularly, back up data (Duh I guess you all do that anyway a HDD or OS Failure is far more likely than a serious hack attempt) and keep REALLY sensetive data off net, Floppy Zip CD PGP encrypted whatever, I have worked for over 23 companies, just implementing basic Common sense security, I have found this more efficient than letting the non technically literate put faith in something they don't understand, just test it ask your boss (unless you work for a tech company) which he believes would provide better security port blocking or NAT, or a virus checker (bet he says virus checker (that hasn't been updated for 18 months).

now I know that we are posting to a forum on technical discussion, and most of the regular posters have worked out how to register and therefore qualify immediately as powerusers, but come on there is healthy paranoia and obsession,

Run ZA or Tiny or whatever when you need to, and Keep autoprotect on if your processor has nothing better to do, otherwise, scan when you want to, back up important stuff, and keep your private life off the net, Oh and DON'T SHARE YOUR ENTIRE DRIVE... and remember never eat yellow snow,