[Minn]

Make fun if you want, but please unplug if you want to be safe. Two years ago I was rebuilding my father-in-laws XP system. The installation disk came with SP1, but SP2 wasn’t in place. I thought I’d go ahead and download SP2 before I got the virus software in place. It took all of 45 minutes for a worm to infect the beast. I had to wipe the drive and reinstall

Yea, I guess you never know these days. Sorry for the snarkiness. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a router with a firewall between you and the internet.

[the_Watchman]

When my rebuilt machine was hit it was behind a hardware firewall.

BTW: A good tool is “Shields Up” from Gibson Research. I have used it for years to test my firewalls on both linux and Windows machines. It will check to see how visible your machine is from the outside. It will scan all your IP ports.

You usually don’t want your machine responding to any unsolicited query. Even a negative acknowledgment gives away your whereabouts. Some of the older routers would respond with a “nack” packet in response to a ping on your IP address. Responding with a “nack” is similar to the old hack about the chicken thief who calls out in the dark “Nobody in here but us chickens, Boss!” :)