How much knowledge is enough? (was RE: [LINK] Broadband)

[Chirgwin, Richard]

Craig - it's all too easy to dismiss the newbie, and say "it's up to the
user to learn about security". But in broadband, which is a vastly different
proposition to dial-up, I think it's putting too much on the average user.

I made a joke about the piano being more interesting than the PC, but that's
not just flippancy. There's a life out there, and while I spend time at the
PC, and work with it, and check the e-mail many times daily, I don't
particularly want the thing to eat into my time. It's an appliance, not a
hobby.

Broadband seems to demand that the user turn the PC and the connection into
a hobby. To what end? What's the benefit to the user? - if the answer is "to
be secure when you're online" then the payoff comes into question. It's
saying "you can get a little bit more functionality (ie the broadband
connection) for a lot more work", which isn't rational unless you WANT the
hobby.

Service providers are learning that they have to play the game - that the
old "caveat emptor" attitude to security isn't viable in consumer broadband.
But the realisation and the implementation are both slow.

In the meantime, I will probably get broadband; I will not leave the stuff
switched on all the time because I consider that a waste; and I will look
for a router that allows me to cut the connection when it's not needed. 

I'm not going to run up a Linux firewall on a second box, because while I
endorse the aims and purposes of Linux, why bother? "You can spend months
learning a new OS, just to do what you're doing now a bit quicker" - sorry,
but I have other hobbies, interests and obsessions. I'm not, not, not
devaluing those skills among the experts - I admire them - but why >should<
I learn more about my broadband connection than I know about my washing
machine?

RC