So with an old burned install CD of Feisty Fawn I went through the process of completely formatting the Windows OS and installing Ubuntu on an old XP laptop. I then went through the online upgrade to 10.4 LTS, only installing the gnome desktop environment package in the process.

My (admittedly very open) question is that in this state and online, what security considerations do I have to immediately make for the default install? I understand that a lot of this swings on my intended use of the server, but just sitting there online what risks is it exposed to (this obviously goes far beyond the realm of linux, but I am not sure how these risks are accommodated in the default install). For example, I believe there is a firewall installed with Ubuntu but by default it allows all traffic.

Any other guidelines would be much appreciated. Thanks