mobility and firewall

[HC Brugmans]

I have to add that when I switched from windows, being a bit of a power 
user, the ubuntu experience left me feeling naked and vunerable.
I understood the no open ports policy, and was comforted by the lack of 
threats, but it bugged me greatly that I could not in an easy way check 
up on what was coming in, and what was going out.

The reason for this, is that it was usually my firewall that picked up 
spy/mal-ware, and the occational virus/trojan first.

Even at this piont, it'd greatly re-assure me if I could just press a 
key, and my connection details / services / etc would pop up, with an 
ability to lock the system down, etc.

I'm aware that this is not a primary goal or function for any firewall, 
but I'd just like to relate to you the story of someone who'd feel 
comforted by the 'zonealam-experience'

On a second piont, this is useful for far more people than just 
laptop-roaming users.
When I first moved into my dorm, I was amazed to find that the majority 
of occupants in the building (250+) are connected to a single network. I 
could literally browse dozens of p2p sharing folders, and countless my 
documents.
I don't know anything at all about securing linux on the network, and I 
solved messing about with it and pppoe by buying a router, but this 
would not be an option for everyone.

Just another set of user-cases where it'd be useful to be able to keep 
an eye on things.