Use a Firewall and Protect Yourself!

Simply stated, a firewall is a barrier between you and the bad stuff. 

A firewall may be a piece of hardware you install between your computer and your network access.  But more likely, it's a piece of software that runs on your computer.

Software firewalls include the firewall built into Windows XP as well as third-party firewalls you can choose and install yourself.  Some popular firewalls are:

• ZoneAlarm (Free Version): http://www.zonelabs.com
• Sygate : http://smb.sygate.com/products/spf_standard.htm

Firewalls work by evaluating all of the data flowing in and out of your network interface card to make sure it is a transmission that you wish to allow.  The sending of data that you have not permitted is blocked and most firewalls will warn you about the attempted transmission so that you can evaluate the software on your computer for security purposes.