Software firewall really necessary?

[Medicine Bear]

I'm a noob to having a PC at home. Just set one up and I have Internet access thru my local cable provider. I bought a Linksys router that I have my cable modem plugged into. Of course my PC is plugged into the router as well. I've heard from people here at work that a software firewall is not necessary with my setup. Thought I would ask here. Thoughts?

 

[WobbleWobble]

Necessary, no. Good to have? Yes.

Your router will protect you from any incoming worms, but it won't protect from outbound traffic. Also, if another computer in your network is compromised, you run the risk of also being infect since you aren't protected at the machine level.

 

[Medicine Bear]

Originally posted by: WobbleWobble
Necessary, no. Good to have? Yes.

Your router will protect you from any incoming worms, but it won't protect from outbound traffic. Also, if another computer in your network is compromised, you run the risk of also being infect since you aren't protected at the machine level.

This is at home and will be the only pc connected to the network. Well, my fiancee's laptop will be as well I suppose. Anyway I also have Kapersky installed for my AV and Counterspy setup to kill spyware. Just wondering if adding a software firewall would be overkill.

 

[jack1201]

Maybe. ^_^

 

[KoolDrew]

Just use the SP2 firewall.

 

[EagleKeeper]

An extra firewall does not hurt.

The hardware will catch most incoming.

A s/w firewall that can be configured for trapping outbound mischief makers is very useful.

 

[Rottie]

my laptop does not use firewall even though sygate personal firewall installed. I am going to use it if I take laptop outside of my apartment. laptop is protected from my router. My other pc is running behind zonealarm suite 6 firewall.

 

[Medicine Bear]

Hmm sounds like maybe I should have bought the entire Kapersky security suite so that I would also have a software firewall.

 

[sourceninja]

Its a waste of time if you ask me. It is very simple for software on your machine to bypass any software firewall. Therefor the outbound monitoring is useless. Your better off with a hardware firewall (even a simple linksys one). The only thing software firewalls do is make you feel secure.

If you want real security, you need a dedicated hardware firewall running IDS.

 

[imported_DarkPenguin]

Software firewalls also protect against other machines behind the hardware firewall.

 

[sourceninja]

a hardware firewall can protect machines inside the network too ya know. Its just that people dont think about it. You can use IDS to detect attempted worms and such and shut them down. But if you are letting unknown machines on your network anyways, you got much larger problems.

So I can say that if you use wireless hotspots, or go to lan parties, or anything else that lets you plug into networks where you may not know if they are secure, then you should probably run a firewall on your PC. For your own network, just monitor who can connect and you should be fine. Or run some IDS.

 

[Medicine Bear]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
a hardware firewall can protect machines inside the network too ya know. Its just that people dont think about it. You can use IDS to detect attempted worms and such and shut them down. But if you are letting unknown machines on your network anyways, you got much larger problems.

So I can say that if you use wireless hotspots, or go to lan parties, or anything else that lets you plug into networks where you may not know if they are secure, then you should probably run a firewall on your PC. For your own network, just monitor who can connect and you should be fine. Or run some IDS.

Thanks! It will just be my PC and my fiancee's laptop.