[gitmo]

We'd never had a laptop before, and this one hasn't been out of the house yet. Can we just go to a Starbucks or hotel and fire up?

You can. But turn on your Firewall first. If you're running Vista the firewall is on by default. If you're running Windows 7 it's on as well. There are some improvements in Win 7 firewall as well.

If you're on Windows XP, you have to choose to turn on the firewall. There are variances in Win XP configurations. This Microsoft link shows you how to set it in Win XP.

[ErnBatavia]

Thanks very, very much. Yes, we're on the brand new Win 7; being computer lightweights there's a learning curve, but we're getting there.

I'd done some cruising around and it does appear the firewall is on by default.

[jackv]

Any idea what this is?

winupd64x.exe

It keeps popping up for me to run program. I don’t know enough about these thing and am afraid to do so but maybe it’s just another update.