atw: Internet security & firewalls

About a week ago, Alex Noon posted the following link. It's to the ShieldsUp
Internet security scan:
> https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Thanks Alex, there's some great security-related freeware on that site. 

When I ran the ShieldsUp scan, it said all of my PC's ports were "stealthed"
(i.e. hackers and their Internet scanners wouldn't be able to detect the
presence of my PC). That isn't anything that _I've_ knowingly done -- I
assume it's just the way that Windows XP Home SP2 works by default. 

You might find ShieldsUp reassuring, or it might point out areas where you
should tighten your PC's security.

Many people have mentioned using a software firewall. I did download and try
Tiny Personal Firewall, but I found it an absolute _pain_ when trying to
train it what activity to allow on my PC and what to block. (As I recall,
every time you or any of your own software tries to access any file on your
PC, the firewall asks you whether to allow the access.) So I gave up and
uninstalled it. Maybe I was going about it the wrong way. Anyone got any
tips on how to train a software firewall?
http://www.tinysoftware.com/home/tiny2/tpf5

P.S. I found the following article on grc.com fascinating. It's about a
denial-of-service attack by a 13-year-old hacker! (The article is very long,
but its author, Steve Gibson, seems extremely knowledgeable and I find his
style very readable. He had a long-running column in InfoWorld Magazine.)
http://www.grc.com/dos/grcdos.htm

Regards,
Craig
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