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As DSL and Cable Internet connections have become more prolific so have active attacks on computers that just sit on the Internet.  This is a little known fact, but just simply plugging your computer directly into your new cable or DSL modem is asking for trouble.

Sitting on the Internet this very minute are 10’s of thousand of computers infected by worms that are actively searching the Internet for unprotected machines to infect.  It is not unusual for an unpatched Windows machine placed directly on the Internet to become infected with some form of the Sasser virus within just a few minutes. 

The way to protect yourself against these attacks is to place a layer of defense between you and the whole of the Internet.  I highly recommend to my friends and family that they invest the money in a NAT router.  These are sometimes called firewalls and the terms are more or less synonymous.  This hardware can be bought at most any office supply store for less than $100.  I hesitate to recommend a brand but suffice it to say as long as the word router or firewall is on the box you are “good to go.” If you spend just a little extra money these routers can also be a wireless access point for your home.

This layer of protection between you and the Internet will block 99% of active attacks against your comptuer from the background radiation that exists on the net today.  Now all you have to do is not actively go looking for trouble, which we will discuss in later entries.