If you're looking for opinions, you've asked the right person - I have plenty of opinions :)

Without question, in my humble opinion, you need a firewall - especially since you're on cable now.
There are plenty of reasons to protect against hackers other than protecting your own data.  Some
may argue that a firewall is unnecessary since there's nothing on his or her PC that would be of
interest to a hacker. Although that may be true, hackers can use your PC to launch attacks against
other PC's, send viruses, and generally wreak havoc, and the attacks will appear as though they're
coming from your PC. My cable ISP contract states that I am responsible if a hacker gets to their
equipment via my PC, and they strongly urge using a firewall - specifically Zone Alarm.
www.zonelabs.com
Hope this helps.

Al Thompson

----- Original Message -----
From: "ellis"
Subject: [PCSOFT] Firewalls


> Dear PCSoft,
>
> I recently switched from dialup to cable modem.  I have an anti-virus
> (ETrust) and I turn off the cable modem when I am not connected.
>
> My question is:
>
> Do I really need a firewall?  I have heard from various people differing
> opinions.
>
> I look forward to the feedback.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ellis Heath

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