A firewall filters network traffic according to a set of rules. (Most modern software firewalls come with a pretty good default rule set, and/or are smart about learning the rules you need as they go along (or both).) Firewall coverage is definitely more important for a machine on an "always on" connection (DSL, broadband, etc) than dial-up, simply because your dialup connection is only active for a fraction fo the time. But recent articles report that an unsecured Windows PC may get successfully attacked in as little as 15-20 minutes on-line, and the Internet shows no sign of getting much safer anytime soon. If your ISP (a) owned the PC, and (b) was taking steps in their network to firewall your traffic, then it might be appropriate for them to instruct you not to install one. Since neither of these is likely to be true, I would assume that their advice is based on time wasted trouble-shooting "not working" connections, only to discover that the connection was fine and just a misconfigured firewsll was blocking traffic. The recommendation is in their interest, not yours. There's a free version of Zone Alarm which is a pretty good place to start. David Gillett On 6 Sep 2004 at 0:21, Cameron wrote: > I would like input on whether or not I need to install a firewall. I have > been told "No" by my ISP, a small local telephone company, but everything > I've read seems to say "Yes". > > I live in a rural area with old phone lines capable of handling only about > 33.6 dialup connection , even though I have a 56K modem. I have an OLD > (Ancient) computer that is slower than molasses (200mhz), with 32MB RAM. > I'm running Win98SE. > > Your opinions, and the reasons behind them, please. If you think I need to > install one, can you recommend a free program that would serve my purpose? > > Thanks any and all. > Mary Cameron > Henning, MN > [log in to unmask] > > PCSOFT maintains many useful files for download > visit our download web page at: > http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml PCSOFT maintains many useful files for download visit our download web page at: http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml