This section is dedicated to securing your Home Computer and will discus things like Firewalls, Antivirus software, and Windows Settings. To better understand the operation and workings of these programs and systems, you will need a better understanding of how your computer works. This section will also give you a simple and straight forward explanation of how your computer runs.

Ports:

What is a Port? Think of ports like doors on your house. A computer has many ports numbered from 0 to 65535. That is a lot of doors. So the more that you leave open… the easier it will be for someone to walk in.

Every aspect of Windows that pertains to the internet requires an open port. MSN Messenger requires several, as do many others. So to say that you can just close all of them, is impossible. You can, however, limit their use and manage them.

There are many programs available to monitor open ports and port activity. Typically, they watch open ports and alert you to activity on each port, as well as keeping a log. In these logs you will find the IP address (see next section) of the computer on the other end of the Internet that accessed your system. This is not always a hacker. In fact, most servers that you connect to (including IRC servers) will send packets of information back to your computer for a response. This allows them to ensure that you are still there, and does not pose a security threat. However, in the event that you are attacked, the Port Monitor will provide you with the information you require to prevent that computer from attacking you again.

Below is a list of Websites where you can obtain Port Monitor:

Nuke Nabber: http://www.dynamsol.com/puppet/