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WildBill wrote:I do have a Norton software firewall. I was just checking on hardware and/or new software. Thanks for your suggestions. I have read some mixed reviews about the Linksys. I am just trying to sort everything out before buying something.

Ignore my initial reaction then... you DO have a firewall running. I feel better.

If you are interested in learning Linux, you can set up a very good firewall by running another computer and making it a dedicated firewall. Or you could go the appliance route. Check out the following for information - they were good when I was looking a few years back.
http://www.firewallguide.com/

WildBill wrote:Nope, no router. Just DSL plugged into the modem.

Holy crap! Get that thing unplugged RIGHT NOW. Go get a hardware firewall (router) from the store and use it. At this point it doesn't even matter all that much which one. Something with NAT at least, but SPI would be better.

NAT = Network Address Translation (it works as a firewall, but isn't a full/true firewall. Much better than nothing - maybe 80% effective)
SPI = Stateful Packet Inspection (This is a true firewall. Maybe 95% effective)

Both assume properly set up. Good brands for the home user are Linksys, Netgear, Belkin. There are many other good ones out there as well though.

WildBill wrote:What about recommendations for a firewall?

Hardware if you can do it. I liked SnapGear when they were in business. A nice (simple) linux device like that works great. Make sure it is properly configured and you will take care of 99% of what you would with a software firewall. And many things that the software one won't. Of course there are some things that a software one will do better, but on the whole I don't see the need for both. Some people do.

atxgun wrote:Kalrog, or you could ditch MSSQL and go w/ MySQL

I have (and will continue to) use MySQL where it is appropriate to do so. But in this case it really is NOT an appropriate solution. At least MySQL can actually be a database now instead of just a fast file system like it used to be.

Seriously, the product that my company produces has been built around SQL Server 2005. Not even 2000 would work for it. I'm hoping 2008 has some fixes for the bugs that we found in things like the service broker and the CLR.

It's nice to be on Linux at home. Now if only I could get a good MS SQL Server manager on Linux I could dump MS at work as a desktop OS as well.