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Routers and Firewalls

I previously didn't have a router setup and had two computers linked by a phoneline PCI card and internet sharing. I set up a virusscan and firewall (McAfee) on both computers.

I recently upgraded to a Linksys wireless router (WAP54G) and also added a wireless capable laptop to the home network. So now I have one hard wired computer, one WiFi PCI card computer, and one Centrino laptop running off the Linksys.

So, to finally get to my question, is having a firewall and/or virusscan necessary to have on each computer, or does the router basically handle the firewall for all and can I erase the McAfee from my system?

Thanks for any input on the topic!

-John

Reply to
John ©
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John © wrote in news:C55Gd.49253 $ snipped-for-privacy@twister.nyc.rr.com:

virusscan

The 54G is not a FW. It's a NAT router and may have some FW like features and that's it.

It meets the specs in the link for a NAT router.

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It's good enough for unsolicited inbound scans and attacks and that's it.

A NAT router with an AV is good enough for most home users that don't do high risk things like open ports on the router using port forwarding.

A FW appliance will be able to do what's in the link for *What does a FW do* and it will be able to stop both inbound and outbound traffic by port, protocol, or IP as explained in the link.

I myself supplemented the NAT router with a host based FW running on the machines. Some people don't.

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Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

I would always suggest a software firewall on any computer connected wirelessly. Anyone that gains access to your wireless network is on the trusted side of the hardware firewall. And you might take your laptop somewhere else and connect to a public network.

Reply to
dold

I keep typing WAP54G when I mean WRT54G .... so my question is in regards to my wireless router, not an access point.

I have McAfee Firewall and AntiVirus on the two desktops (PIII and Celeron) and it seems to slow the system a little, but the Symantec AntiVirus and Windows Firewall on the Centrino laptop doesn't seem to slow it at all. So I am guessing it's more a processor thing and I am going to leave the FW and VS on all computers.

Thanks for the advice.

-John

Reply to
John ©

which is the diference between ap and router wireless??

regards,

Reply to
lucaspaciolu2

lucaspaciolu2 wrote in news:lucaspaciolu2.1j873m@WiFi-Forum_dot_com:

That's what a NAT router does any NAT router wired or wireless.

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The wireless router has connections for wired machines Ethernet LAN (thus 4 port switch) and wireless client machines. It is also a WAP. Routers also have a built in switch. The link provide also explaines what a switch does (Other Topics link).

As for a stabdalone WAP, it's plugged into a wired only NAT router and allows wireless machine to use the wired router's Ethernet LAN to access the Internet and allows the wireless machines to share resources with the wired machines is the just of it. It's a bridging device.

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The standalone WAP only supports wireless client machines.

Duane :)

Reply to
Duane Arnold

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