Good morning,

I would like to gather the opinions of people on this forums on a rather sticky subject. Firewalls for the common user. Let's get straight to the heart of the subject. I do not use one, nor have used one for a very long time. Why is this? Because in my eyes, if I close off all ports manually (this is in windows xp pro) then the access to crack my system is detered because there is no way into the system. If no services are running, then obviously they can not get in. Sure, they may know I am on there because they can ping me. Sure they may learn I am running Windows XP Pro. But what good will that do if all ports are closed because no services uses them? They know I am there, but will also know I am untouchable.

That is just my opinion, and I've never once had my system hacked into. Which brings us to the question of this thread. Why do you think a home user should work behind a firewall if closing ports and disabling services preforms the exact same functions? If you agree with me, that's fine to. But in either case, please explain your opinion in full so that we may all see your side, and perhaps learn something new today. Please note, this is for home users, not for buisnesses. Buisnesses are a completely different subject

regards,
Pooh Sun Tzu