Firewall question.

[DrBlade]

Hello guys, is it really needed to have firewall on my computer, my router has a firewall option which is enabled. if yes, can you guys recommend me a free good firewall that works which theese antiviruses: Avast! Free 9, Malwarebytes Pro. Thanks

 

[Kaktussoft]

Every home router (actually a NAT-router [sharing 1 physical IP address with multiple computers]) is automatically a firewall. Assume I send some traffic to 12.13.54.23 [your ip address]. The router gets it but doesn't know what to do with it. Router drops that traffic.

Only traffic requested a few seconds before will be send to correct pc. I mean only traffic requested from LAN will be forwarded by router.

So by design a home-router is a firewall for incoming traffic. But not for PC to PC traffic inside your home!! But pc to pc are in same subnet and automatically trusted by most firewalls anyway. For example for shared folders/printers.

So if you trust ALL devices connected to your router and never get connected to another router... you don't need a firewall to block hackers from OUTSIDE.

Of course a wireless laptop is a whole other story. It connects to other routers while you travel. Mac donalds, airports, hotels... all have WIFI hotspots...

 

[DrBlade]

Every home router (actually a NAT-router [sharing 1 physical IP address with multiple computers]) is automatically a firewall. Assume I send some traffic to 12.13.54.23 [your ip address]. The router gets it but doesn't know what to do with it. Router drops that traffic.

Only traffic requested a few seconds before will be send to correct pc. I mean only traffic requested from LAN will be forwarded by router.

So by design a home-router is a firewall for incoming traffic. But not for PC to PC traffic inside your home!! But pc to pc are in same subnet and automatically trusted by most firewalls anyway. For example for shared folders/printers.

So if you trust ALL devices connected to your router and never get connected to another router... you don't need a firewall to block hackers from OUTSIDE.

Of course a wireless laptop is a whole other story. It connects to other routers while you travel. Mac donalds, airports, hotels... all have WIFI hotspots...

Thanks for the info, i do feel i need a firewall program, which one would you recommend?

 

[Kaktussoft]

What do you want to accomplish with a firewall? Do you want to be able to block INCOMING and OUTGOING?
based on:

• source ip address
• source port address
• destination ip address
• destination port address
• weekday or time of day
• based on what application

Must it be very easy to use?
Is memory usage and cpu usage an issue?

 

[DrBlade]

What do you want to accomplish with a firewall? Do you want to be able to block INCOMING and OUTGOING?
based on:

• source ip address
• source port address
• destination ip address
• destination port address
• weekday or time of day
• based on what application

Must it be very easy to use?
Is memory usage and cpu usage an issue?

I want to block outgoing and incoming. It can be advanced, cpu and ram should be fine, i have 2 gb ram. So yeah.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Use win7 built-in firewall. What are you missing?