philomena wrote: > I've been following some of the firewall posts and have read some How-tos, > but there is something I'm not clear on. I don't have a network at home, > just a single PC, but its connected via DSL, so its always on and has a > static IP. Is this setup open to attack ? There is a risk, yes, especially with a static IP. > And, if I should setup a firewall, > do I need to get a second PC for that, or can a purely software based > firewall be configured on my one machine ? Firewalls are actually always "purely software" =) You can get firewall devices, but they are still just computers running software. Firewall layers are of benefit even on a stand-alone machine, because the firewall filter examines incoming packets before they are even allowed up the network stack - so yes, you could look into setting up ipchains or something on your machine if you were worried about attack. Beware, though, there are pitfalls -- firewall rulesets are complicated, and you can very easily turn a working setup into a non-working (albeit recoverable) one. It's not hard to accidentally deny packets you *want* to see. Be thorough, and read through the documentation carefully. It's worth the effort. > The docs I've read all seem to > start with the assumption that there is more than one machine available. That's because that's the most common scenario. -Stephen-
