If you could give me the basics on firewall protection I would greatly appreciate it. I dont think the foil hat on my monitor is working......
>> firewall protection
Basically, a firewall keeps people from connecting to your computer via the internet and doing bad things to it. Don't know what OS you use, but if it's WIN XP it already has one built in (but might need to be enabled).
Zonelabs publishes a free version of their software firewall that works very well. You can get it here:
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp They will be plugging the pay version of the program on that site, but the free one works fine in conjuction with current anti-virus technology to keep away the common forms of intrusions, virii, and malware.
But first, go here:
http://grc.com/ This site has a lot of info about internet security, and it has an application it runs that will test your computer for vulnerabilities, and explains more about firewalls and why you need one than I could here. After reading the info on the intro page, find the link to "Shields Up" and it will take you to the tests.