[BubbaGump69]

Ok I know you should have a good anti virus program and a 3rd party firewall (because windows firewall sucks) but what else? I thought I was pretty secure but I get online today and my firewall (free sygate) reports I am being port scanned. This has never happened before. I do not have any bit torrent or file sharing software on my computer. It kinda freaked me out so I downloaded a trial version of Armor2net. I also have the free spyware scanners and use them almost daily. I want to be able to go to sites but not have my information open to others.

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

I would say that a Firewall is minimum. At hardware firewall at best (such as a NAT router) or if not then software firewall.

Being port scanned is not uncommon. It's not illegal and can be done on any computer connected to the Internet. There are even port scanners on the Internet which you can use. Really, the concern is whether a malicious user finds an open port and gains unauthorised access to your network or system through that port, not whether you're being port scanned or not. This gaining unauthorised access is illegal.

So long as your firewall is blocking malicious users on the Internet trying to gain unauthorised access to your network / computer, then you don't need to worry.

[johnyB_24]

IMO a software firewall and an antivirus suite is the minimum.
And yeah,as Alvin.C said,being port scanned is pretty common.

[Osiris]

To tell you all the truth, I dont see any point in having a software firewall. I was all for it in the begining but to this day, 2 years later, I dont see a need in it. Now a hardware firewall on the other hand is a different story but they work better anyways if configured correctly.