Who said it stops those virus attacks? Bah, down to basic princibles of Windows XP firewall. The firewall sets up all ports so that they are stealthed and doesn't respond to the usage of them unless a program running does that for the OS. If the firewall is not running the OS will automatically respond and say the ports are open for use. This is that basic function of the firewall and does not provide any more protection. Trojans and MS Blaster are a little annoying when it comes to Windows XP's Firewall. First, one of the key features that most firewalls have is a function that allows or disallows programs from accessing the internet. Windows XP's firewall doesn't have that and allows virii such as worms and trojans to do whatever they like without being detected or blocked. Second MS Blaster uses a port that Windows WILL respond to when scanned. Lastly, why the -*BAD WORD*- does my esteemed know-it-all show himself off as a guest?