On Saturday 08 August 2009, Grant Edwards wrote: > On 2009-08-08, Nikos Chantziaras <rea...@arcor.de> wrote: > > On 08/08/2009 05:29 AM, Dale wrote: > >> I had thought about picking up a Linksys router and putting it > >> between my desktop and the modem. > > > > Your modem is probably a router anyway.
+1 I don't think I have seen a proper adsl modem for years now. 99% of them are modem+router combos or half-bridged routers. > Almost certainly (at least in the US). DSL modems with > Ethernet interfaces almost always are routers/firewalls (and > have been since way back when). It used to be common for Cable > modems to be bridges, but that seems to be getting less > common. Yes, most cable so called modems are half-bridged routers. > > Furthermore, right now you're accessing the internet without > > any form of protection anyway. If you're with dial-up, that > > means you're connected directly to the internet. And don't > > forget this is Linux, not Windows. > > > > Even without a firewall, remote break-in is highly improbable, > > especially since you're not running any Apache or MySQL > > servers on your machine (at least I assume you don't.) > > That's what I thought back when I was using dialup on a Linux > box that didn't have any servers running. Then one day I got > root-kitted. > > IMO, safely attaching a Linux machine directly to the Internet > takes a fair bit of skill and lot of diligence. Safely > attaching a Windows machine directly to the Internet is at > least an order of magnitude more difficult. I think that both are exactly the same in terms of measures that need apply. A firewall and practicing safe-hex. Of course the Linux machine has the added benefit that it should not be opening or listening on all sort of ports that you did not ask it to and as a rule in Linux you are not running a desktop and its applications logged in as root, but the basic premise of using a firewall is the same. -- Regards, Mick
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