With dial up I have an ISP that changes every six days or so. You have indicated to me that you can not get my address with it. Only trace it to a phone bank in my area.
On broadband my computer is hooked up all the time...making me vulnerable to people that are going to try to trace my ISP (my understanding is that the ISP in broadband remains the same)
I can disconnect my computer from the net. I have heard stories about people using your computer to traffic in illegal stuff...I am not sure how they do it but the stories say the stuff runs in the background where you never see it? Rumor or real??
I think you mean your IP address changes every few days. No IP address is trackable back to a person's address. What it tracks back to is the Internet Service Provider (ISP) in your area, and if your IP address never changed, it would be unique to your computer, but nobody would know precisely where that is. Almost every IP address changes occasionally.
What you are referring to is spyware, which can run on any computer, dial-up or broadband. If you run an antivirus protection suite (and many ISPs throw a package in for free when you sign up), it will monitor your computer for any potential problems. Your Windows XP or Vista operating system also comes enabled with a firewall, which can stop most malicious attacks. I'd say the risks of someone doing something illegal via your computer are so slight as to not worry about it. And if you use an aforementioned virus protection program, your chances of getting a computer virus are quite low also.