[frightlever]

A router probably isn't necessary (though nice to have) - Slashdot linked an article today about the most secure firewalls and Jetico + Comodo were 2 of the top ones and both are free. I think Comodo came no. 1. I believe the theory is that a decent firewall will prevent you from being "visible" on the internet so someone isn't able to latch onto you for extended probing because when they're scanning IP addresses your PC should act as if nobody's home at the IP address it's using. I've been using filseclab up til now and it scored REALLY poorly so I think I'll be switching to Comodo. Haven't checked to see how heinous either of their user agreements are yet so use your own discretion.