greg writes:
<snip>...

> I had expected
> it not to be visible at all. In fact, I had visited the
> Shields Up! page
> <https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2> from this PC, and took
> comfort in the
> fact that it told me that my PC was well shielded from prying eyes.
>
> Imagine my surprise when I could ping my home IP address from my
> workstation, and resolve the IP to the correct host name!
> Tracert (I know,
<rest chopped>

Greg,
You bring up an interesting OT.
I have installed the "free" zone alarm which is supposed to make my PC well
hidden from all the peeks, pokes, and pings of the internet.  Running the
test web site (which they refer to), provides a report describing the
"stealthiness" of the attempted inquiries. And all the most potentially
damaging of ports are reported as "stealth".

But, I am curious nonetheless just how safe it is.

Does anyone else use zone alarm or similar products that they may want to
comment on as well as your experiences with them?

jds