Re: Firewalls and Wireless Routers

From: Marko (Marko_at_mmct.net)
Date: 12/30/04 

Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 16:26:17 -0500

Leythos wrote:

> In article <ObBaEDr7EHA.2180@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl>,
> davecrispy@hotmail.com says...
>
>>If I have a wireless router installed and working and configured with a WEP
>>firewall.
>>
>>The question is - can I safely stop using the built in firewall with Windows
>>XP Pro SP2 and rely on the one in the router?
>>
>>Seems a bit silly having a firewall in the router and on both the desktop
>>and laptop!
>
>
> If you have a wireless router I would guess that it's not actually got a
> firewall, just NAT, so you don't really have a firewall - none of the
> home user units are really firewalls, just nice little NAT systems.
>
> Since the XP SP2 firewall is really open to being improperly configured
> you're not doing much with it that isn't already being handled by the
> NAT box. If you want to have a firewall, either purchase something like
> the WatchGuard Firebox SOHO unit or install something like ZoneAlarm.

I would like to add something:

if you have a router's "nice little NAT system" then you effectively
don't exist to probes, its very good, but that is only half of it.

zonealarm allows you to block/control outgoing stuff and XP's firewall
doesn't do that. 

-- 
Marko Jotic
"Common sense is anything but common".
 From the notebooks of Lazarus Long. Robert A. Heinlein.
Handmade knives, antique designs, exotic materials at 
http://www.knifeforging.com/

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