Mrrzy, a firewall is not a spam filter.
Troll, a firewall is supposed to stop intruders gaining access to your computer via your internet connetion and you do need one even with a dial up connection.

One word of warning: I was sucessfully hacked in the Hearme General Chat room while running Zone Alarm. Fortunately, it appears that the person who did it was just showing off but he gave my IP address out to the whole room.

Jon