I'm running on cable with a linksys bsf41 sharing the connection. My ISP roadrunner says that file sharing should NOT be enabled while online cause it opens doors for hackers. I have my two computers networked and only enable filing sharing when I actually have something to transfer, removing it after finishing. Is this the best way to do it or is there I way I could leave file sharing on between the two computers permenatly and not be paranoid I'm getting hacked?

do you have a good fire wall? that will help a lot, i recomend zone alarm (its free)
What can happen is: a hacker could get on to your gateway computer( the computer connected to the internet) and through that one they could access shared folders and files.
I have a home network in order to share files, so i share them, and just run a fire wall on each computer.

Yeah I use zone alarm on both computers, the only time I take it down is when I run a counterstrike server. The computer that I run it on is basically my bare bones comp

Nothing important data wise.

Was only worried if they could get in to my main baby through the file sharing.

Well, there's another option. You could bind another network protocol to your network card. Basically, if you've only got TCP/IP installed, and you're using NETBios to connect to shares on the two PC's, your entire TCP/IP stack becomes vulnerable and you've given hackers a way in.

One thing you can do is use TCP/IP for external communications, but another protocol (IPX or NetBEUI) for internal communications. NetBEUI is fairly safe since it can't be routed - it's a simple protocol for small networks.

If you're using Windows 2000, you don't need NetBIOS at all, since your machines can use Kerberos authentication. There's much less security danger with Kerberos. However, make sure you remove the "Everyone" group from the share (it includes unauthenticated users). However don't grant the "everyone" group "no access", since that includes administrators!

Basically, enabling NetBIOS over TCP/IP is a _bad_ thing. There are plenty of ways to connect the two PC's together that are safe.