Router or Firewall? Which is safer?

slackerz · Post by **slackerz** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:46 am

I was wondering, seeing that my other PC is sold and am not sharing connections, should I use a sofware firewall or stick with the Router. Also, I've read that the router eats up half of your connection, is it true? I'm on a Linksys BESR41 Router anyways. Also, does having a router have anything to do with me being behing a proxy server or whatever it is?

Thanks and have a nice day.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:50 am

As long as you purchase a router that's capable of having throughput that at least matches your connection..it will not "eat up half your connection". People that have an old model router, such as the befsr41...if you're one of the newer high speed packages like OOL or Comcasts PowerBoost...yes..it will be a bottleneck..it won't get much past 8-12 megs..depending on which version you have. But many newer model routers are capable of well past 20 megs throughput..so they are not a bottleneck.

The choice to additionally use a software firewall is up to you. Personally I don't, my only concern is hiding my networks from the outside....keeping hidden/private, and a router does that using NAT. However...most home grade routers are only 1x way..they block the outside from coming in..but they allow ALL traffic to go out (unless it fails SPI). Some people who do riskier stuff have a tendency to get their systems infected with trojans 'n stuff like that..if their system is not secure, and they're not using a high quality antivirus..so they will not know about a trojan "phoning home" if they have just a router. But a software firewall may catch it.

slackerz · Post by **slackerz** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:03 pm

So, you're saying that it all depends on my connection? Which sofware firewall would you guys recommend?

Thanks in advance.

mnosteele52 · Post by **mnosteele52** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:09 pm

For a good free software firewall take a look at Kerio 2.1.5.

slackerz · Post by **slackerz** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:18 pm

Yay! As always, mnofsteel52 comes to the rescue!

Thanks for the link mate.

I still am not certain about proxy. Does my ISP decide if I'm behind a proxy? Or is it my firewall?

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:27 pm

Comodo Personal is another good free one if you want a software firewall
Recently a major update also.
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/

The free version remains full features, and is constantly getting updates..2x features which are rare with other "free" firewalls. "Continuous updates" being brutally important for a software firewall in my book.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:28 pm

slackerz wrote: I still am not certain about proxy. Does my ISP decide if I'm behind a proxy? Or is it my firewall?

You'd know if you installed a proxy server, if your ISP has you behind one...you'd have to ask them. Most ISPs don't....

slackerz · Post by **slackerz** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 12:37 pm

Well, ermm, the thing is, I don't know. I just found out today when running TCP/IP analyser. Is there anyway to disable it?