>> You seem to imply that if a determined hacker wants control of your machine/network, and your security is less than that of the NSA, you're going to get hacked - and that simply isn't true.
>
>I'd disagree. If a determined hacker wants into your box, odds are they know more about getting in than you know about keeping them out.

Now you've got me interested. OK, you're Mr. Port Scanner, and you've determined that a computer exists at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and is running and has some IP ports that are present but closed.

To win a bet with your pal Ms. Hackette, you have to find out the contents of, or take control of, the machine/network at that address. How do you proceed?

>But, the odds of them wanting in very badly in the first place are pretty low.

For sure.
>
>Though I would advise anyone with a static IP (or something resembling it, as is with some cable modem providers) to run some sort of firewall, I'll bet you could run nothing and only get scanned at worst. I think it's kind of like the virus hype. If you take a few well-documented precautions, odds are that you'll never experience a problem.