Firewall

flw

In run a PC and laptop both wirelessly in my home
Do I still need a firewall ?

albertross_2

if you have a router, you don't need one as much, but still a good idea to use one imo, especially if your wireless network isn't encrypted.

Bargain_Rzl

Presumably this is only true if you have a router with inbuilt firewall? I didn't think this was true of all routers...

MadCowMan

a software firewall will also help you control which applications on your machine are accessing the web.

Its an extra layer of security.

MadCowMan

Bargain_Rzl wrote:

Presumably this is only true if you have a router with inbuilt firewall? I didn't think this was true of all routers...

Most home routers operate using NAT (Network Address Translation) and unless you set a default private host , will only allow unsolicited inbound traffic on specific ports to nominated machines.

Seagull

MadCowMan wrote:

a software firewall will also help you control which applications on your machine are accessing the web.

Its an extra layer of security.

As quoted !

I use Zonealarm free and I'm delighted with it.

wolfman

MadCowMan wrote:

a software firewall will also help you control which applications on your machine are accessing the web.

Its an extra layer of security.

Yep totally agree with the above. Strength in depth, the key being different types of layers.

A software firewall will protect you internally, can handle out-going requests, and will work on a per application (rather than per port) basis. Well worth having for the small overhead.

TheFaqqer

May as well have one - doesn't harm to have an extra layer in there. Just in case anything gets through from the outside, it makes the job a little bit harder if there is an extra wall to get through.

HTH,

Faqqer