Mike Hord wrote:

>>I would personally dispense with any software firewall. I've seen far
>>too many weird issues crop up because of software firewalls.
>>
>>Get a consumer router. They can be had extremely cheaply these days, and
>>are magnitudes better then any software firewall. TTYL
>>    
>>
>
>Agreed.  If you check out the link below, you can rate your PC's protection.  On
>my system at home, behind a standard off-the-shelf Linksys router, it comes
>back as being nigh impervious to assault.
>
>https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
>
>My linksys is the sort with 802.11 built in, and to secure THAT I turned on the
>MAC filter, telling it to ignore all devices other than the MACs that I specify.
>Can't get much more secure than that, I'd imagine, since it's completely
>passive and won't respond to anything from any other MAC.
>  
>

Hmmm. Not true. The MAC addess of your machine is transmitted "in the 
clear" when communicating with your access point. i.e. you broadcast 
your MAC address regularly when you access the network through the 
linksys. It takes very little to alter the MAC address of many network 
cards. Thus, there is relatively little work required to "spoof" you MAC 
address, and then wait until your real MAC is switched off, and connect 
to the linksys with the spoofed device.

Using MAC's as an access filter is only a small part of securing a system.

Read all about it.
http://www.techworld.com/features/index.cfm?fuseaction=displayfeature&featureID=160

Rolf
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