If you have a computer at home and use the Internet regularly, you should look
into having a firewall.
The function of a firewall is to block "open ports" while you are
on the internet. A firewall can be a physical device attached to your computer, or
it can be software that is installed.
There are many firewalls available. A free firewall appropriate for home use,
Zone Alarm, can be downloaded from
www.zonelabs.com. Other commercial firewalls are available from
companies such as Norton or McAfee. You can read further information on why to
use a firewall from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)
here.
Here you can use the
ShieldsUp web page to safely test your computer for open ports.
