Broadband connections are not like dial-up, where you dial-in, do your thing, and disconnect. Broadband connections are ALWAYS connected. This means, unless your PC is off, your computer could be a gaping target for hackers, port scanners, etc. This is not something to take lightly. You may never get hit by a malicious attacker, but you will probably get probed all the time. Many of the systems that probe you are benign and nothing to worry about. But, if some pimply-faced teen with a social problem wanted to screw with your PC, when he/she finds out you’re on an unsecured broadband connection, they’ll think Christmas came early.
One very important thing to do is keep your operating system up to date. Everyday, people are finding new security holes in Windows, a number of which can be exploited by an experienced hacker (or an inexperienced hacker with a hacking script). The best way to stop this is to keep up with the latest patches to Windows. Use Windows Update and periodically download and install the latest patches.
File sharing is another thing you must address. File sharing, enabled, allows others to (obviously) share files on your PC, meaning they can read and play with your files. Without restriction, you can see how this is not good. The best thing to do is simply disable File Sharing altogether. You can do this by going into your Network Control Panel and simply un-checking File Sharing for Microsoft Networks. If you don’t want to totally disable File Sharing, at least limit it. Enable file sharing only for those directories that you want to be viewable. If a few directories should be viewable on the network, don’t allow your whole drive to be seen. You can use Network Neighborhood to navigate to your PC and see what someone else would see on the network. Enable file sharing only for approved directories. You might even want to enable some kind of password to gain access to those shared directories. Use GOOD passwords. If you use simple words, they can be cracked. Remember, there are password-cracking tools out there that can crack VERY good passwords. Use a combination of letters and numbers, don’t use simple dictionary-words, and make them as long as you can.
Finally, don’t even consider NOT having a firewall. It is not hard to do. A good software firewall can range from cheap to free. Once you get them tweaked, they are invaluable to protect your PC from unauthorized net probes. Norton offers Personal Firewall for around $50. BlackIce Defender and ZoneAlarm are two other very good ones. ZoneAlarm is free for personal use and is quite good.
Now What?
So, now that you’re gotten yourself a bad-ass broadband connection, what do you do with all that power? People are always finding stuff to do, and not all of it is good. Some go out and download things all day long, from freeware to full warez titles. Some raid Napster and download every piece of music they can find. Some subscribe to adult websites. Some run their own server (some regardless of whether their ISP condones it or not). Whatever you do, its up to you. Regardless, though, you will love your new broadband connection. Trust me, you’ll never want to go back to dial-up again. You’ll probably even complain to all your friends about their dial-up, the pompass person that you are. =)
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