This depends a bit on your router/modem. You should hit up an external firewall
testing page to see if 139 is really reachable from the Internet. If it is not,
this is good and your router/modem is doing NAT like most modern ones should
be. Sites: http://www.hackerwatch.org/probe/ or http://www.auditmypc.com/
If 139 is reachable from those sites, yes, there are still ways to get into
your computer with just port 139 open. Those sites should give you more info,
but suffice to say you want port 139 hidden from the world.
And like you seem to already know, a system, ultimately, is only as safe as the
user using it. Even with firefox and diligence, you can still let in something
bad via a mis-click on an email attachment or web page. However, this is not
necessarily something specific to Win98.
"Theoretically, I've not enabled port forwarding in my router/modem, and so
external computer trying to ping or connect to my computer should not succeed,
and if there's no port listening at all (except for port 139), no other
computer should be able to infilitrate right?
Yet, I can't say anything is foolproof. So just like to seek your expert
opinion. What are the other areas I should continue to look at to further
protect my system? Is it still possible to be attacked through a listening port
139 with file sharing disabled?"
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