I have been getting hammered for about
four days now from a group of IP's probing certain ports repeatedly.
Those ports are closed but still, just the banging on the firewall was
enough to hack me off.

I made the settings on my modem firewall a bit stiffer and the next
thing I know - gaim looses connection. First google chat, then yahoo,
then aol. Then my weather applet wasnt updating. So I had to redo some
things.

But yea, you can definitely make it much much more secure if you are
willing to take the time.