There is another possiblity here... he could have meant that you could create a proxy server... with a HDD that cashes the most frequently visited websites/content... that way everytime you browse to the site it would load off of the HDD as opposed to try and dload it again from the "Net" On the downside im sure it's a little painful to set up for the first time... and if you like to hit a lot of news sites where frequent updates are the norm... well you'd end up refreshing constantly anyway and pretty much alleviate any performance increases you'd experience with the proxy... An yeah you can install a firewall / proxy on the same computer... to give you the added protection. Hope this helps a little

But in regards to games... I really don't see how this would affect them, unless you had your firewall security settings set WAY too high... and everything was prevented from communicating (been there done that :P) That's all I can think of right now... been a long day If I come up with anything else i'll let u know

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Please remember personal opinions do not = FACTS!