it does take a little getting used to and letting the program learn, it will pop up and ask you do you want to let such and such connect to the internet you will likely know what is asking because you are trying to use something that needs access so in those cases say yes, if it is something that needs to access it regularly like your antivirus check mark where it says remember this so it does not ask each time. Do not give server rights some things will ask but it is not necessary once you say no to server rights it will next pop up asking for access, that you can allow. If it is something you do not recognize asking then say no and see if you can determine what it is, if you had some type of malware that is trying to phone home you would not want to allow that access. I prefer mine to pop up and ask each time with some of the rarely used stuff I like to know what is connecting. When getting zonealarm or any other free firewall or any program actually be very alert during the install period and uncheck or do not allow the addition of any toolbars or extras, Zone alarm unfortunately now does try to include a toolbar with the free version, you do not want that toolbar. and if you have problems or questions just ask. When something like generic win 32 something ask for permission say yes or you will not be able to connect to the internet, that is one to check mark always allow. Yes as grandms said with cable you have a direct connection and with no router in between you and the internet that even more dictates the use of a software firewall. The benefit of a router with built in hardware firewall is great but I use both on my windows machines, actually my linux has guarddog firewall built into it so I even have one on linux. The link I had provided the main reason I do refer that link is that there are such good instructions and pictures for someone new to firewalls.

I'm happy with a combo of AVG/WinDefender/VistaFirewall. I probably tried all the free AntiVirus programs and some not so free mainly looking at boot time, cpu & memory use. It's really hard to beat the simplicity of the Vista firewall and switching between its default Public Place & Private/LAN settings with a simple check box ...makes fiddling with ports a thing of the past for me. And I dont have a single error in event viewer!

I would recommend Spyware Terminator. It integrates the ClamAV antivirus program and scans for both spyware and viruses. Spyware Terminator has realtime protection. Here are a couple of links. http://www.spywareterminator.com/app/features.aspx http://www.snapfiles.com/get/spywareterminator.html I have been running the program for some time and have never had a problem. Regards.

That is an interesting pattern and it looks like it will go togeather very nicely. TFS Can't await to see the final results. Jayne