I'll tell you what I was told, I needed a firewall and I am on dial-up.

They told me that with dial-up your chances of getting hit are a lot higher. They explained to why, but all that putter talk, I couldn't begin to repeat it back to you. They did say a lot of it has to do with you server, some get hit harder then others, like Net-Zero and Peoplelink (I think)

All I know is before I had the firewall, I got hit many of times. They where even re-setting my home page to a smi-porn site. They even some how shut my putter down. I'd be online and next thing I know I'd get a shut down warning.

Now that I have the firewall, No more shut downs, Ad-aware finds no spyware and Norton says I'm virus free. So I'm happy I have it now.