A new cable moden, help

Hey I have just got a cable moden hooked up to my computer. What I need to know is what all do i need to do to stop someone from hacking into my computer. Please give details new to this stuff


Thanks Wsef

If your not too au fait with the intricacies of network security, my advice would be to stick a software firewall on there asap, a full time internet connection exposes you to a whole bag of worms and something like zone alarm or tiny personal firewall will deter all but the most ardent attacker.
Do a search on google for either of the above to get the url's.

If I put on firewall on my system. Will it affect my speed of the cable modum. I tried norton firewall for a few min. and my speed was like having a phone line again. I don't know if it was the firewall or something else causing the slow speeds

Nah, if you've a decent pc the performance hit shouldn't be too bad - i've got my modem connected to a 166mhz pc running linux and it runs ok.

If you have a home network, I would recommend you spend 100 bucks and get a router.

If it is a stand alone puter, ZoneAlarm at www.zonelabs.com or TPF at www.tinysoftware.com are the most highly recommended.

TPF has advanced features while ZA offers ease of use.

Go to zonelabs.com and get zonealarm. I use it, and love it. That should be all you need to do.

If you have a home network, you should invest in a router. You will spend about $100. If you get one, get a Linksys router. It has an excellent firewall, and is relatively easy to manage.

Use Win 2k, use 2 nics and do NAT
or Use zonealarm AND some other firewall. i.e tiny personal firewall or blackice defender

Greetings:

This article from our Fight-Back! section may be of use as well.

One major point when switching to cable is that your Ip number stays the same (static), which makes you alot more vulnerable to attacks

I'm afraid that's simply not the case, i've got a cable modem and it uses dhcp. If i were to have my machine off for more than 4 hours it would get a new ip address - not that i do have my machine off for more than four hours, or at all - i use a linux firewall which stays connected all the time, i bring my dual boot main pc up and down all the time though.