Pinecone, I have known people who just use the built-in Windows firewall, however the downside is it does not monitor outbound traffic. I would like to think that most, but not all, people would agree that a third party firewall that monitors both inbound and outbound traffic is the best way to go. Regardless of how careful some consider themselves to be on the internet there is always that chance of getting infected by malware one way or the other that may try to 'call home' with your personal information. http://netsecurity.about.com/od/firewalls/a/aa081804b.htm "Is there any way to know for sure what I am changing?? " As Luis stated Zone Alarm will present you with a pop-up window letting you know that an application or program wants to access the internet. It will give you the option of 'Yes' or 'No' and list the application that wants access, such as 'Internet Explorer' or whatever programs you have. There is also a 'More info' button in the alert. If the program is one you recognize and use all the time, you can click 'Yes' and select the box 'Remember this info_______' to keep from being bothered with the same request all the time. If it is a program you don't recognize I would click 'No', but not necessarily select 'Remember this info'. If the request keeps coming up and you don't recognize the program and the 'More info' button does not give you the info you need you may want to 'google' and see what it says. There are some 'Windows applications' that need internet access on occasion. Witz

Could be this: Garage door remote not working? The Pentagon may be to blame. Not because of any grand conspiracy theory, but rather the mundane use of a radio frequency the military hadn't used much before. US homeowners in coastal Orange County, California, are among the latest to discover this quirk. There, signals from Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach have been interfering with garage door openers as far as half a mile (0.8 kilometres) away since March. That's when testing began on a new radio system that will allow the base to network with local fire and police agencies during emergencies. The frequency falls in the range of 380-399.9 megahertz, a band long reserved for the Department of Defence but rarely used. "We hadn't had the need to use these frequencies before. As a result, garage door manufacturers began using them because they were pretty quiet," said Gregg Smith, a spokesman for the Navy station. "With the explosion of communications technology over the past 20 years, the DOD has been squeezed to use bands it didn't need to use before." Reports of interference with garage door openers near military installations have been reported from Rhode Island to San Diego to Hawaii. "Out of the blue, the garage door just stopped working," said Bill Davey, 51, of Norco. "We changed all the batteries in the remotes. When it still didn't work, it was like 'What's going on here?' " The culprit was a Navy installation a quarter-mile (0.4 kilometres) away. The Federal Communications Commission allows the so-called unlicensed use of frequencies for low-power purposes such as garage door openers and vehicle key fobs as long as they don't interfere with government communications systems, Smith said. Smith said he's fielded 16 complaints from people near the Seal Beach base, but he assumes the interference is affecting many more. People can buy a device to retrofit their openers to another frequency; Davey's cost $US60. "Once you explain how it all works, folks aren't happy, but they've been understanding," Smith said. I'm not sure the $US60 is realistic.

I GOT SO LOST IN looking at your wonderful house and the view!! Are you near the water maybe, and up high?. I couldnt tell what i saw out there. Gorgeous! Anyway. I think you've nailed it on the brown for the dining area, especially with the lighter floors. The entry door? I also like that deep brown against the brick but you COULD do a deep purple/violet or eggplant there but with the gold in the side light...hmmm. Do I see a burgundy swatch on the kitchen wall? That might look nice. As far as the prints on mantel. I see something more abstract with some color and rounded or wispy shapes to contrast all the straight lines I see, and keep the prints propped in various sizes, 3 of them since you have '2 of' of other things there. Maybe you should build a built in lower bookcase/console unit that would match the trim and put the TV on that where the tv is now. I dont think it should be any higher than the top of the inside of the firebox so your TV would still stay at an eye level. Thats all i have for you right now. Good luck.

This old thread was just linked in another post. Yet another thing on my mind today... Our KD currently has no toe kick on our island. I think it will get used on one side or both for prep, so I don't think this is necessarily a good idea. It initially had something to do with the end panel, since we're having two back to back cabinets on the island. But I think most people do, so that shouldn't be an issue. One end will be seating and the other can be flush. But the two long edges should have toe kicks, I think. I began to question this once I saw that not having a toe kick cost an extra $55 per cabinet x 4. Plus, I believe with this look that molding is run around the entire perimeter, and THAT's the stuff that adds up cost-wise. As we've been considering this, DH and I have both tried prepping at the end of our existing peninsula, and I don't think not having a toe kick would be bad. And we have two, exploding Australian Shepherds that make me think less toe kicks could be a good thing overall. So many decisions...