Firewall enquiry

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter in New Zealand
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Peter in New Zealand

For some years I have had a LAN with four computers at home, based on a
DLink DSL504T modem/router also providing access to the Internet. With the
kids all grown up and gone now-a-days I decided to simplify everything. My
one remaining machine now connects to the Internet via a SmartAX ADSL2+
MT882 modem using the ethernet port.

The old DLink had a hardware firewall built in, and I also ran a software
firewall on each individual computer. My question is, now with a firewall in
the new modem, and no LAN any more, do I really need a software firewall on
my single machine as well any more? I am running Windows XP SP3 with the
Windows firewall enabled at present.

Many thanks for any advice offered.
 
Depends if other computers connect to this router. If so, or if this is
likely, then I would leave the firewall on.
 
Peter said:
For some years I have had a LAN with four computers at home, based on a
DLink DSL504T modem/router also providing access to the Internet. With the
kids all grown up and gone now-a-days I decided to simplify everything. My
one remaining machine now connects to the Internet via a SmartAX ADSL2+
MT882 modem using the ethernet port.

The old DLink had a hardware firewall built in, and I also ran a software
firewall on each individual computer. My question is, now with a firewall in
the new modem, and no LAN any more, do I really need a software firewall on
my single machine as well any more? I am running Windows XP SP3 with the
Windows firewall enabled at present.

Many thanks for any advice offered.
Click to expand...

The modem's firewall and XP's firewall are both one-way firewalls: they
supply protection against inbound evils, but no protection against outbound
evils. I'd replace XP's firewall with ZoneAlarm to get some outbound
protection, in case you download some malware.
 
Mmmm - that's a really good point. My machine is always connected on
broadband, and does contain some reasonably confidential data. I have it
encrypted, but your comment is a valid one. Might look into something like
that. Many thanks for your thoughts Bob.
 
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