linux vs mac / security

[primal]

hope you ppc guy can shed some light here... My G4 on dial up, running OS9/X was connected to the net 24/7 and I never worried about hackers or viruses and never had either of them in 4 years:).
My ISP told me once that all machines connections to their server were cut every 6 hours regardless, I guess it was a security thing. Though my Mac was never effected, which they never believed even though my statements showed hours connected 40-90 hours straight (I often had to restart because of MSN and eudora crapping out). Anyway apparently the command they used to terminate infact had no effect on Macs lol, some added code on their side that allowed me to connect in the first place.
For dial up no high speed but right next to a brand new relay(thank you bell Canada) i'm lucky enough to connect at 48 even on a rainy day:).

So, now I'm on linux, I'll be scanning for viruses and what not but should I be more concerned about how long my connection is running? chances are I will now be terminated every 6 hours and get a new IP upon reconnection but just thought I'd ask as you guys have dealt with this already.

thanks

[solo]

Find out what services are running on your machine (inetd, FTP, ... ) and shutdown any services you aren't using. That will eliminate a good portion of security risk.

There is port monitoring software you can run, and there are web sites you can visit that will scan your IP to tell you what ports you may have open (or if you're stealth all together). Internet security in Linux is configurable down to the n'th degree of network contact, so becoming familiar with the different aspects of it is key to securing your box.

[primal]

Thanks for the pointers solo, i'm on it:).