Does a SOHO router free up a PCs resources?

[TechnoPro]

A buddy of mine asked me this, and I had no good answer. His logic behind it is that the router reduces the workload of a software firewall by virtue of stopping all unsolicited traffic, hence freeing up resources that would have otherwise been used up by the firewall.

Any merit to this claim? My thoughts are that the performance increase would be negligible at best.

 

[spyordie007]

On a modern machine using a random internet address you're probably right; the reduced workload would probably be a very small amount.

I think the biggest advantage would be reduced suceptability to worms/attacks that if successful in their attacks can slow down your machine signifigantly.

 

[Goosemaster]

The question is, what layer device is it? If it is a simple to medium rotuer using simple ACL's, it won't be able to block layer 3+ layer attacks like even the simplest software firewall can. If you are talking about zone alarm vs a high layer firewall, then perhaps there would be a difference, but those wouldn't be conencted directly to a workstation.

 

[spidey07]

well a firewall inspecting all those packets does involve work. work takes time, so yeah a hardware firewall yields better performance.

also I've seen some games have trouble with software firewalls because they send so many small packets (not really high bandwidth, but its the number of packets per second that cound processing wise.)