Originally posted here by nihil
quote:
I feel that we sometimes tend to be a little too elitist and geek, thus losing touch with the realities of the world beyond the ivory tower. ..... People who wouldn't know how to configure a firewalled router if their very lives depended on it, and who probably couldn't afford one anyway?
1. Broadband Internet Access is considered the "world of the ivory tower"?
2. If they can't manage to configure a hardware firewall, they won't be able to correctly configure a software firewall either.
3. If you can't afford to purchase the NECESSARY equipment/software (which is really relatively inexpensive compared to other technologies home users purchase and use on a regular basis) to keep your data safe when you're on the internet, you should either:

A. Not be on the internet at home until you can save up for such equipment/software
B. Not have anything on your computer that you'd worry about someone getting their hands on if you DO connect to the internet AND be willing to face the consequences if someone breaks into your unsecured computer and uses it to attack others (via jump point, ddos, spam gateway, etc).

As I said in my previous posts, obviously hardware firewalls really aren't a viable choice for dial-up users. But at the same time, dial-up really isn't a viable choice to provide connectivity to a home network either.

If you're on Dial-up, you should also be on an OS that is properly hardened, and that doesn't stay dialed-in when you're not actively using it. Most OSs these days have built in firewalling features that can be configured, which makes the need for a 3rd party software firewalling product unnecessary.