Which Broadband.....going dizzy!

FangKat

"Routers are really best for sharing computers or gaming."

I just have to repeat something similar I posted earlier.

Routers usually have firewalls built in and a hard firewall is port protection. For someone to try and get into yr computer they access it via an open port. So for instance on my system here my Zyxel is set that it allows port 80 access (I have an in-house walks website (a hobby). Any other attempt into my system is redirected to 0.0.0.0 i.e. nowhere.

A software firewall handles security on my port 80.

I get average 10 hack attempts a day.

mike_paterson

Hey!!! Just found this one that seems amazing for the price........ please take a look.

http://www.qtds.com/code/products.asp?recid=407&catid=47

Gatita, that looks like a good value deal to me and has a lot of functionality. It does not have a firewall (not suprising at that price) so you might want to install a free firewall - check out http://www.free-firewall.org/ fopr some options - I have used zonealarm before and it was pretty good.

Regards
Mike

gatita

Hello again,
Mike........isn't this a firewall?

IP packet routing/filtering
Routing protocol supports RIP-1, RIP-2, Static Routing
Integrated Firewall
COMPATIBLE WITH ANY ADSL CONNECTIONS FROM ALL ISP IN UK

Designed for ADSL: It is

I can see its an important feature! at the moment I have Sygate firewall.

mike_paterson

I missed that - you are right - even better value !
Cheers
Mike

johnydeath

"Routers are really best for sharing computers or gaming."

A software firewall handles security on my port 80.

I get average 10 hack attempts a day.

Dont forget all your other ports - there are 65535 to worry about (although very few are utilised), especially those used for Windows network communication.  If you do have something nasty on your system then you also need a firewall that does not assume that any outgoing traffic is accepted as ok by default.  A router with NAT and filtering, combined with a software firewall and a decent AV product is a great way to begin your security.

If you choose the wireless route then WEP is essential as a minimum (yeh I know it can be broken after several million packets - but are you 'that' important? - and you can rotate your key or change your passphrase before that happens). Wireless functionality is great if you need it but consider the future - if you dont need it now and buy a non wifi product, will you use it in 6 months time and regret spending the extra £20 or so? Laptop wifi cards are inexpensive, even PC Robber was doing a 54Mb one for £7.50 recently.

There is an information minefield and overload out there, keep your solution simple but with effective protection.

FangKat

"Dont forget all your other ports - there are 65535 to worry about (although very few are utilised), especially those used for Windows network communication."

that was my point, all my ports are unavailable externally except 80 which has to be open for my website. that is protected by soft firewall (Sygate pro in my case). --If you dont run a website locally then that can be shut down too.--

Also have run mbsa against it all (iislockdown etc.)

It is a sad state of affair these days that you have to do//run all this (plus the av you mentioned of course) isn't it.

jellybambam

not using DNS with your webserver yet then ;o)

ok slightly off original topic now but perhaps related in a way- very good advice running those tools, especially as they are free. Also would recommend N-Stealth for anyone running a webserver (you can get a limited evaluation at http://www.nstalker.com/eng/products/nstealth/)

ttfn