Router Firewall Enough?

[Questi4110]

Well, lately after getting the router, my ZoneAlarm firewall has been pissing me off. My Belkin router has a built in firewall - is this enough to protect my computer?


THANKS

 

[amdskip]

You can never have enough protection really. A router is a firewall for incoming packets but zone alarm scans programs sending info out so zone alarm is definately worth it.

 

[IceNineJon]

What has ZoneAlarm been doing that's pissing you off? May I suggest Outpost (http://www.agnitum.com/download/). There's a free version if all you want to do is control incoming (which you no longer need) and outgoing packets. I found that ZoneAlarm was eating a lot of CPU just to filter my traffic.

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: amdskip
You can never have enough protection really. A router is a firewall for incoming packets but zone alarm scans programs sending info out so zone alarm is definately worth it.

Yes you can, when it becomes annoying its too much. Do you wear a belt and suspenders? Do you wear a helmet while driving? The nat on your router is going to keep you safe from incoming crap as long as you don't use any port forwarding or dmz features to make holes in the firewall. It probably doesn't do any outbound filtering though. So if you download a trojan, it could connect out to a remote host without your knowledge, etc. You need to determine your own comfort level, but if you're pretty careful about not opening unknown attachements and the like, I would feel safe without a software firewall.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I've run several years with just the router's NAT and basic firewall capability protecting my machines. I run active virus scanners on all of them, and I regularly scan for spyware. Nothing has made it through yet, but I usually know what's being downloaded, and it's all low risk stuff. No Kazaa or the like.

 

[JackMDS]

Here we go again.

Mild Version here: Basic Protection for Broadband Internet Installation.

The works: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=1103047

 

[PepperBreath]

Originally posted by: Questi4110
Well, lately after getting the router, my ZoneAlarm firewall has been pissing me off. My Belkin router has a built in firewall - is this enough to protect my computer?

THANKS

If you're only worried from incoming attacks, it should be fine. A basic router/firewall won't be perfect protection but for the average home user it works.

You only need ZoneAlarm if you have a real problem with spyware. I scan weekly with Spybot and Norton, and have never come across any spyware or viruses and I haven't used a software firewall in more than a year.