Honestly, I'd look into a local pc shop coming out and doing a eval on your
network setup. There are so many reasons on why it could be slow, and what
is a fast internet access? T-1, ISDN, dial up? If you want to make sure no
one is access your network remotely you should be running a firewall.
Firewall's help keep people from coming in over the internet. I've had
everything from bad network cards, bad hubs, and even bad cables slow down
a network. But your network should look a bit like this
Internet - cable modem/router - firewall - hub - three computers
That would stop people on the internet from getting to any of the three
computers. Or you could place XP's built in firewall software on each of
the three computers but I don't trust Microsoft. Also the firewall between
you and the internet could prevent people from using a packet sniffer to
catch traffic between the three computers. Because the only true way to
see if anyone is accessing is to run some sort of packet sniffer, or have
some audit trail setup on the computers to audit failed logins into the
error logs. But if the computer was already hacked, more than likely the
hacker has already altered the logs and settings.
Jeremy
MCSA
People without firewalls are like people who leave there cars running and
unlocked while the run in and get coffee, you might get away with it but it
only takes seconds for some to walk up and take your car, the same applies
to your computer.
