Security on a newly-installed debian system

[Deryk Barker <dbarker@turing.cs.camosun.bc.ca>]

Having switched at home last year (from Mandrake to Debian) I am about
to remove SuSe (can you spell 'anal'?) from my office machine and
install deb too.

However, I have a slight concern: my home machine is behind a hardware
router/firewall, but my office machine isn't.

So, a question: exactly when will the newly-installed machine become
vulnerable to attacks from the 'net? I recall there is a firewalling
package with deb (although I don't need it at home). Will this be part
of the dselect process and be configured to be secure on installation
or do I need to set it up manually, if so when is the appropriate
time?

Any input appreciated.
-- 
|Deryk Barker, Computer Science Dept. | Music does not have to be understood|
|Camosun College, Victoria, BC, Canada| It has to be listened to.           |
|email: dbarker@camosun.bc.ca         |                                     |
|phone: +1 250 370 4452               |         Hermann Scherchen.          |