Getting Broadband on Friday

What steps should I take to protect my PC?

[tosspot17]

Well, my broadband connection should be ready just in time for me to be in London for PubCon, but i still can't wait.

However, should I be concerned about security issues?

I'm not going to be using kazaa, or anything like that, but what steps should I take to protect my PC from the undesirables, if any more than usual?

Cheers,
Chris.

[jpjones]

Get a firewall.
If you're on XP, there's one built in (goto your network connection properties, last tab).

Otherwise install Zone Alarm (which seems to be well recommended by others on the board - I've not tried it myself).

You could always go one stage further and install a gateway machine on your network (running Linux), and use NAT to both firewall your systems from the internet and share more than one computer on the connection. Smoothwall installs onto an old PC and does this job perfectly.

HTH,
JP

[DaveN]

firewalled router and zonealarms works for me.

DaveN

[tosspot17]

Cheers chaps. I'll get it sorted. :)

[knighty]

I use sygate - amazing what programs try to access the web :O

dont trust the inbuilt MS firwall :(

[Mohamed_E]

Plus update both your OS and anti-virus software regularily, manually or automatically.

[jbinbpt]

If you are are using more than one computer, then get a linksys router. Easy install. Great firewall. I heard that the new ones come with antivirus also.

jb

[dragonlady7]

I have a router that uses NAT, and no problems so far...
well, we're an all-Mac network, but I don't know if that helps.