To give a fast overview, I was going to school for the medical field and changed to computers. My teacher was talking about how a firewall worked. He uses a brick wall as a visual for us. He was telling us how a two way firewall is better than a one way firewall. So I took it upon myself to get rid of my current cheap AVS/Firewall and re order my Kaspersky which is a two way firewall.

Then I turned on the windows Vista firewall. So that means I have 3 way protection isntead of one. I made a comment to my teacher about it and he said bad idea. He said the firewalls will conflict with each other. He said the windows firewall is useless anyway but I beg to differ. I think two firewalls(one being a two way) would be better. I have nothing to hide nor fear of getting hacked, it's just a test I am playing with. I set up both firewalls to allow and block each program. Im going to see how it works out. Kinda stupid but I am a computer geek and had some spare time on my hands. Most of my life is studying to keep up with this guys test.

I just thought I would share my experiment in case anyone else is into computers.

Next lesson is why you should avoid laptops vs desktops. The first part of the discussion was that desktops last alot longer than laptops. Anyone know if thats true or just personal opinion?

BTW, in case anyone needs free software for their computers, get AVG free version. It really works. I have it on my desktop and it stopped a trojan horse. No other issues but since money is tight, I just thought I would pass on the information to help keep computers safe and let the dollar go a little further.

On a different note, I took a bottle of "air" and took the cover off my desktop and cleaned it out. WOW! It blew out a huge amount of dust and the fan doesn't come on as often or as long now. :-) It was only 5 dollars at the local computer shop.

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Doesn't matter, both are damn near obsolete when you carry your new one out of the store.
I'm on a Toshiba lap that's 4 years old, paid a tad over $400 for it on sale.
I went thru a bunch of laptops when I was working, the company gave us a neww one every 3 years. None of them ever failed or had a problem.

I do have a desktop that has 2- 5 1/2inch floppys and no harddrive that probably still runs. Guess how old that is.

Feature for feature, desktops are better. They offer more growth and are much more scalable.

However, laptops offer utility - ie, the ability to go places - that a desktop will never offer.

A router should be part of any computer. They offer one of the best inbound defenses you can have. That's holds true for Mac users as well.

Jim

Yup, a natural firewall.

I use laptops for work as well. They average about 4-5 years before replacement and go through tons of abuse without problems . Bet I open and close the lid at least ten times a day. I did have one years ago that had a hinge problem however that has not happened on the last two.