I've heard that if you connect online through Windows without patches, you can expect someone to break into your system in a matter of minutes.  This is why you need a firewall, Linux (better), or both (best).

Is there a way to detect attempts to break into your system?  I'd like to see just how often somebody out there tries to break into my system and see how much more difficulty the hackers have as I take steps to improve security.

-- 
Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com>