i live in a small town with a GREAT cable company that happened to have the foresight to begin upgrading their lines and equipment a few years before everyone else. as such, i was one of the first people in central indiana to have broadband cable internet access (1998), and i've been on it ever since. when comcast recently doubled their speed, they FINALLY caught up to what we've had all along. their upload speed is faster, however.
the wife and i just recently told SBC where they can stick their stupid phone bills, too. we both have cell phones, so there was no point to having a home phone. if cell service ever went down, we have payphones a block away, and i'm studying to get my HAM technician license so i can keep in touch with nearby relatives via radio, if need be.
so, congrats on getting high speed internet, and welcome to the club. it's true, though...once you've tasted broadband, you'll never be able to go back to dialup. i can't even stand to work on my friend's computer, because he refuses to get rid of his stupid dialup and it takes him forever to do anything online.
it's especially helpful when you either buy a new computer or have to reformat/reinstall your OS on your existing system. pulling in those microsoft windows updates take no time at all.
as far as firewalls go, i have to agree with everyone else. you do need one. too many people with too much time on their hands will eventually make you wish you had one.
i use all netgear equipment on my network, and i've never had a problem.
if you're looking to buy something, check out a site called
Got Apex, as they post deals and specials and online coupons and stuff like that for a variety of computer-related items (and some non-computer related, as well).
if you can't afford paying for something right now, just look around for some free software firewalls, i'm sure you'll find it. not sure if zone alarm has a Mac version, but i'd be surprised if there wasn't something out there that would suit your needs.
zone alarm was neat because it would tell you who was trying to access your pc (whether it was a website, a service, or just someone poking around to see if you've been infected with the latest trojan), and what port they were probing, etc. for fun, i used to do traceroutes on people probing my system, and turn them into the abuse contact for whatever ISP owned the block of IPs that the probe came from. don't know if anything ever came of it, but it helped to pass the time.
heh, as a word of warning, don't overdose on broadband. when i first got it, i think i stayed online for about 9 hours straight, watching streaming videos, downloading big files, and generally trying to do all the things i'd never been able to do before, all in one night.
Ain't it mindbending? 
