Firewalls protect PC from viruses

Q. My son and I are having an argument over whether it's OK to leave our computer and Internet connection on 24 hours a day. I know little about computers, so I worry that leaving the connection active would allow malicious outsiders to come into our computer. We have Norton AntiVirus, but that's all I know about our computer security. We have Microsoft Windows XP.
A. All of us need a firewall to ward off the thugs who bombard the Web with probes seeking out unprotected computers with always-on cable modem or DSL Internet connections.
This is particularly true for folks with just a single PC up and running around the clock, because the router hardware used to share a cable or DSL connection among multiple computers includes built-in firewalls.
The easiest fix is to engage the Windows Internet Connection Firewall built into Windows XP but not activated by default. Like hardware firewalls, this software firewall keeps closed all the ports that hackers can exploit to slip worms into a PC's memory and then use weaknesses in Microsoft's software to run damaging routines.
Here is the drill
Open the My Network Places and select View Network Connections in the pane to the left. Find your Internet connection, probably the one called LAN, and give it a right-click. A tab called Advanced in the display this summons includes a check box to turn on the Windows Firewall.
There are more sophisticated firewalls, including one from Norton and the hugely popular Zone Alarm, to fine-tune rules about which outsiders can access a PC, but the built-in Windows firewall works just as well by stopping all comers. That is about all most of us need.
Q. I reside in a remote area and use the Internet to listen to radio broadcasts. What do I need to do to save an interesting radio broadcast? Can the broadcast be saved directly to a CD, or do I need to save it to my hard drive and then record the CD from the hard drive?
A. With the never-ending flap over recording industry complaints over music piracy, your answer may stir some gripes from the studio owners, but what you are asking to do is no more than the legal recording of radio music we have been doing for years. And all kinds of Windows software can be used for this sort of thing.
For example, the Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 includes a module designed to let users copy vinyl records or cassette tapes into digital files that also can be used to record streaming audio and other sounds that one gets on the Internet. A less expensive solution is Cakewalk Pyro for $29 at www.cakewalk.com.
All you need to do to record Web radio is start playing the capture software and then open the music player. Whatever is played through your sound card will be recorded into the MP3 music format to store on your hard drive and later burn onto CDs.
Necessary to set volume
You need to know it is necessary to set the various volume controls so that the music doesn't come in too loudly and corrupt the MP3s. A couple of tweaking sessions will have you downloading and recording anything you care to hear with even less effort than popping an audiotape into a high-fidelity music system.
A final word: To find the sliders to adjust volume controls, click on Start and Control Panel and open the Sounds and Audio Devices icon. Then click Advanced to bring up the sliders. Now go to the Options command at the top of the slider display and change it from the default for playing to recording.
You need to put checks in the boxes for Stereo Mix, Line in and Microphone.
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