*grumble* i hate grc, but i guess shields up isn't too bad. another really good thing about having a software firewall is that it helps you identify malicious programs on your computer. Everytime a new program tries to access the net, the firewall should tell you what it's trying to do and ask you if you want to let it do that. if the program is not something you want running, you can take further steps to figure things out and fix them.