The firewalls dont help you with hackers!
I'ma hacker , good one somethimes :) ! The firewalls dont help you so much . They dont help you . So listen here :
*. Your computer can be infected with any troian or any logger that any antivirus cant find and firewalls cant help you !
2. If you have a lan connection , and have a home linux server , that can be hacked and try to change the admin password and remove the bugs !
*. Your provider server can be hacked and they cant see that hacked so easy , inform your provider about that problem !
Can be more problems but this * are the usual , and please format c: and never download and damm suspicious email you receive !
If you are interested in proxys , socks , ftp , and any other info my email is : [email]tmb*7*@**********[/email] and my yahoo messanger also ...
Have a clean computer :) !
simple, but effective guidelines
* - any old Pentium I will do. Pull out the harddrives, fans, everything not absolutely necessary. Just leave the floppy drive.
2 - get some floppy based router/firewall like fli4l (and don't put anymore on the machine outside routing, simple portblock, masquerading, maybe ntp - additional services mean additional risk). FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS - READ THEM FIRST!
* - get rid of the idea that you need Outlook, MS-Office, Windows XP, etc.
4 - get yourself an easy to install Linux Distro, like Fedora, Mandrake or SuSE. Everything you ever wanted in a desktop environment is already included for free.
5 - last but not least - never, ever, neither under Windows, nor under Linux, work as Administrator/root. For everyday work it should always be the rule to have the least priviledges possible.
P.S. To format a drive under DOS does NOT destroy the data present. Only overwriting with random 0's and *'s will.