When you go on-line, you access other computers. Depending upon your interests and skills, you can read web-pages, send and receive e-mails, and download read and news postings. You might also use chat facilities. There are several other standard facilities, including ftp (accessing and transferring files), Telnet (accessing and operating a remote computer), and fingering and pinging. In truth, you have really quite wide access to other computers and their contents whilst on-line.

Whatever access you have to ther computers, they may similarly have to yours whilst you are on-line. The access might be different, and hopefully unused, but it is there.

Assuming that your use is via a dial-up line, it is true that the risks are relatively fewer, particularly where you are not given what is called a stable IP number. The risks remain genuine. Having, from time to time, acted for what we might call the 'poachers' in this business, we know a little (but only a very little) of what they can do.

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