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<P>A lot of those "pings" you are seeing from your Firewall software (about 99.9%) are really just the ISP service "ACKing" or acknowledging that you are still there and that the path is still good, etc... So don't get too paranoid over the amount of "hits" that are happening. Almost all are necessary for the packetizing of these data streams. </P>
<P>More large companies and agencies are apt to get hit, than the individual computer user by the "hacker". We should be very careful as to what we reply to in our emails though as those "Phishing" schemes are prevelant. Mostly they are found in the email services that are provided at no charge. Those services are fraught with predators. Typically, the services that charge for their email like the AOL's, the Comcasts, etc.. have some limited built-in protection, but there are lots of junk mail still getting through. All the suggestions for the Spyware software and the anti-virus software are valid and definitely still needed. </P>
<P>Personally, I feel that if some hacker is out there just thinking he is going to have to get onto my personal home computer for his kicks... he is in for a real challenge. My computer clutter will cause him to change his errant ways!! And.. if this poor soul has nothing but too much time on his hands, he should hack into my file system and clean up all my file clutter. He'll be satisfied with his results. That would definitely cause me all kinds of problems.. I'll never be able to find a file again...</P>
<P>Jack Ciaccia</P>
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