Yup, some years back ( more than 10), we had a cable connection (then NTL, or maybe even C&W still). Single PC in the house, no router, just connected straight to the cable box.

One day, I reinstalled windows (probably 2000). I forgot to disconnect the machine from the cable box. It got infected with something (Blaster possibly, though I thought it was before that) pretty much as soon as it was installed, as I had no chance to install firewall

In reply to a post by Galoka:

Yup, some years back ( more than 10), we had a cable connection (then NTL, or maybe even C&W still). Single PC in the house, no router, just connected straight to the cable box.

In 1999 I had NTL cable modem, on the trial. By mid 2000 I had bought a Linksys BEFSR41 the first real home NAT router.

Steve Gibson at GRC.com was hitting the airwaves hard in the US (cable internet was more established) about the dangers of no firewall etc.

"If you mean, can someone crack the router password."

No....I meant the PC itself. Surely even if someone does get into the router, they then have to pass the next hurdle of getting into individual PCs on the network. If I try to access my PC from my wife's laptop...which is also on the network...I get asked for user name and password.