Quoting Gewehr:
And I do somewhat resent folks marching (no pun intended) in here and stating that Windows is so buggy and infection prone. I ain't Granny, but this machine I'm thwacking the keys on now is an IBM Intellistation M-Pro, dual Xeon 2.4, running XP Pro.
Read my post again: I specifically said that running Win.anything behind a professionally built hardware firewall is a workable solution. Which is exactly what you're doing.
The "Grandma Millies" I'm running across on Windows are NOT. They're plugged straight into DSL, cable modems or dialup.
What drove me off windows was a botnet virus that crawled right past a completely updated XP box with paid-up Zonealarm Pro firewall. After two days of fighting it, I paid $100 for a 160gig USB drive and downloaded Ubuntu Dapper.
Right now the rate of botnet infection on all Windows systems is 11%. The VAST majority of that involves systems with no hardware firewall.
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As stated I have a cellular modem (Kyocera KPC650 EVDO) and a KR1 router/firewall for it (with PCMCIA slot). One thing I use it for is to bring up new Windows boxes, as it's hardware protected until I can finish "iron plating" the Windows install. Which is typically 1/2 or so, during which their protection is inadequate. Only once I've got 'em updated and protected will I plug them into a bare DSL/cable/etc. line.
Even then, I know from personal experience that they are NOT fully protected. Sad, really.