It's a depressing fact of life that unprotected computers connected to the Internet are not only vulnerable, but, in fact, are very likely to be compromised. Hostile computers running programs called, “bots,” are constantly scanning the Internet for unprotected computers, and immediately exploiting broadband connections of naive home users. An experiment carried out in late 2004 showed that a new computer running any version of Windows prior to Service Pack 2, will be invaded and compromised by an Internet attack within an average of four minutes after being connected to the Internet!

It is absolutely essential that any Windows computer must have a firewall installed before being connected to the Internet. This means that, if you do not have a router with a hardware firewall, you must not initially connect an unprotected computer to the Internet if that computer is running any version of Windows that is less up to date than Windows XP with Service Pack 2 already installed. If you use a version of Windows XP which needs to be updated to Service Pack 2 via the Internet, you will not have time to do the upgrade before being attacked.

An alternative would be to obtain a copy of a free software firewall, such as Zone Alarm, by downloading it with a different protected computer, and installing it on the new computer before putting the new computer on line. There would probably not be sufficient time to go to the Zone Labs Web site to download the program with the unprotected computer, itself.

As soon as the new computer is connected, install and update your virus checker, and install and update a spyware and adware blocker. This is the minimum protection you must have.