Re: Any way I can change my IP?
 

Firewalls like most other software, you pay for what you get, ie paid for products will most likely be "better" or at least have have more features.

That said one of the better free ones is Agnitum's Outpost available here
http://www.agnitum.com/download/

Having said that, on one of my pc's i use the paid for version of BlackICE, but it's heavily configured and definitely not an "out of the box" setup. It's blocking all I want it block, and fully stealthed according to GRC's Shields Up.

You pay's your money, you takes your choice. If you are going to use a software firewall i'd do your own research (don't believe all you read by non and so called independant researchers / companies) and try several and keep the one that suits you.

Re: Any way I can change my IP?
 

Hmm just wondering i have My PC connected to a Linkysys BEFSR41 router and was wondering if i was to change the mac address of this device it would change my WAN IP?
Thanks.

Re: Any way I can change my IP?
 

If you change the MAC, such as swapping Ethernet adapters, swapping between PCI card and their USB dongle, changing the MAC presented by a router (eg. from "spoof PC MAC" to default) or by specifying a LAA MAC on cards that support it -

You WILL have to go through the change procedure (mentioned earlier), and I'd say it's 99% certain that the IP address will change, since unles they are VERY short of addresses, the old address will remain associated with the old MAC, presumably for the length of the DHCP lease.

If you suspect that somebody/something IS targeting YOUR address - then forcing a change MIGHT help, but it certainly won't help you evade the general background level of junk packets - only concerted action by ISPs to deal with virus infected users will do that - but the worst offenders, tend to be in places where they just don't care.