DMZ

[Jon Warms]

My router lets me specify a DMZ for one (only one at a time) of my 
computers.
As I understand, the main purpose of the DMZ is to facilitate 
game-playing, and
it does this by opening all incoming ports to the specified computer.

I'm not playing games, but AOL is being blocked by the router, and the 
DMZ is
the only way to run the AOL client.

Anyone have a link to a clear explanation of the threat potential of 
using the DMZ?

The OS X Sharing pref panel provides a firewall with port protection; 
doesn't this
mitigate the potential negative effects of the DMZ on this machine?

Anyone succeed in installing AOL for X behind a Netgear WGR614v4 router 
under
MacOS 10.3.4?

TIA, Jon