Firewalls have become the Internet equivalent of a condom. “Don’t have hex without a firewall!” is the mantra for every security issue, from keeping out crackers to minimizing the threat of Melissa.

My copy of Zone Alarm (personal firewall) recently put up an alarm that said XXX.XXX IP address is trying to FTP into this port and that it had denied access to it. When I checked my open ports by ...

I have had a great workhorse of an un-managed switch, think I paid about $60 and it has lasted years, and now...well, random ports intermittently stopping and some other stuff. So it is time to ...