To get two-way protection in Windows Vista, click on the Start button; in the search space, type wf.msc and press Enter. Click on the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security icon. This management interface displays the inbound and outbound rules. Click on Windows Firewalls Properties. You should now see a dialog box with several tabs. For each profile--Domain, Private, and Public--change the setting to Block, and then click OK.

Even if you do this tweak, I recommend adding a more robust third-party firewall. I suggest either or , both of which are free and fare very well in independent firewall testing.

Lock Out Unwanted Guests

If you share your computer with others (and even if you don't), Windows Vista includes a neat way to keep unwanted guests from guessing your system administrator password. When you set up users and declare one user as administrator (with full privileges), Windows Vista allows outsiders unlimited guesses at the password you chose. Here's how to limit the guesses.

Click Start, type Local Security Policy.Click Account Lockout Policy.Choose Account Lockout Threshold.At the prompt, enter the number of invalid log-ins you'll accept (say, 3).Click OK and close.