advice on routers

[sabrena]

I have been reading several different posts regarding security and other issues and wonder why I need a router. I went to Radioshack to get one because I thought I needed one and the salesperson said all I need isa firewall. Any input would be appreciated.

[wimpie]

if you have only 1 pc, a router is not really needed.
for security its better to have a good router, just because of the fact that a router blocks the ports attackers use before they reach your pc (if configured properly).
they are not expensive these days, and give better protection than only a firewall.
always use a software firewall next to the use of a router.

[sabrena]

the point the salesman made was just that. A router comes with software for a firewall so it would be a waste of money. The one I looked at was only $40 or so and within my price range. He said however that since I am hosting a site I need something better than zonealarm but don't need a router. I actually plan to host 3 but have yet to set it up that way. But zonealarm is the only firewall I have not had a problem with which is why I considered a router because I did not want to change firewalls.

[wimpie]

a good router got a firewall built in, and any software with it must be seen as extra.
if the router got no built in firewall, don't buy it, its no use for your purpose.

[senshi]

ok, the sales man is talking out of his ass when it comes to zonealarm, its a top lass firewall and based on my personal trials of many firewalls, I will say this for free, dont trust your machine to norton firewall or antivirus or noton suite as I use to use norton to protect my PC up until the thing was hacked.

Yes you can use a NAT with 1 PC as it is only benfit, you have to remember that your PC with a firewall has to look after all the ports, this consumes CPU time and system resources, if you park a NAT between you and the internet, it will unload an unbelievable amount of work off your PC to the router which will bear the brunt of the crap that flies around the internet, it also help make you virtually hack proof because of the firewall type properties it has, you still need a software firewall, when both are configured your set up will be hard to crack. Serving will be fairly easy too.

If your venturing out, I suggest a Linksys router, especially if it come bundled with zonealarm, it will teach you allot and allow you to expand with other machines, when you find that you need a large router, you should be fairly adept at setting up a router.

All I can say is that just because you have one machine does not mean that you cant use the NAT as a your firewall to the WWW and run zonealarm on your local machine to protect it from unwelcome callers.

[sabrena]

Awesome!!! I really appreciate the input and explained very well. I am definitely going to follow the advice.

[sabrena]

PS I agree with the assesment of Norton. I was not impressed during the free trial as well as Mcaffeee which I still can not completely remove from my computer. Zonealarm has been the most stable firewall I have tried and free is always a plus.

[vituperation]

I have become fed up with the Norton Firewall lately as well.
Mostly because when I upgrade to the latest winXP SP it becomes useless because it says I need a user ID with supervisor access to do anything.
(This is off topic but if that happens to you, uninstall SP2 through add remove programs to get access to Norton Firewall again, then remove norton firewall and go with something else)

My real question is, how is the built in WinXP firewall? Am I ok to rely on my router and WinXP firewall?

Thanks for any input

[Anonymoose]

In theory, the WinXP firewall is a perfectly good firewall if you don't want to control the data *leaving* your computer. If all you want to do is block incoming connection attempts on all ports other than those you actually want to let people access ie. block all ports except Abyss, it will do fine. However, the router you have should be already doing this - which makes the use of the XP firewall unecessary, unless you have set up your machine as being in a DMZ.

However, there's 2 problems I'd consider critical with the XP firewall.

1) Being so closely integrated with Windows it is possible that a future virus/trojan will be able to disable the firewall without your knowledge using Windows own scripting interfaces.

2) XP firewall offers no control over data being sent out from your machine - only incoming data. So for example, it won't block any spamming virus with it's own SMTP engine from sending out zillions of copies of itself, it won't block all that lovely spyware from phoning home and it won't block any intrusive software that tries to connect to the net without your knowledge and send out info to vendor websites - e.g. printer reporting software etc.

If you're happy with the above 2 points by all means just use XP firewall, if not, Zonealarm or Kerio is what you should be looking at...