Tom
For an easy life, go to
www.computers4sure.com and buy a wireless dhcp nat router with firewall and wireless for $109. It includes so much stuff you may not need today but means you can cope no matter what. Friends visiting and wanting to collect e-mail? Plug them in, you've got 4 ports. Bought a new notebook with wireless? Just set it up (make sure you turn on encryption so the weasel across the road can't piggyback). It takes about 5 minutes to configure, make sure you add a filter to block all incoming traffic. That baby works- I've asked my techo's to hammer it, it is a brick wall.
For bigger installs I'm sure Linux Firewalls are an excellent choice but for home, get something that just plugs in.
Regards
JR
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
