1/ If it's connected to the internet remove X-windows right away :)

That sounds a bit extreme, before we know what the PC is to be used for. It could be that starting X with the --nolisten tcp option would do ... One you thing you do have to be careful about though James, is that being nosey and installing everything, will leave you with lots of 'server services' running on your PC - and while you are connected to the internet, any unprotected running service could be a potential security hole. As a general principle, you should only run network services that you *need* on an internet connected machine - and then protect those as much as possible. Kevin.