Hardware Firewall vs Zone Alarm

The WRT54G is not a "true" hardware firewall.

Bill Crocker

I have both WRT54G and ZA running since ZA gives me more control

especially over outbound traffic.

Your hardware firewall can prevent access to your network, but will assume that everything coming from the network is legit. That is where your software firewall comes in. When used in conjunction with your hardware firewall, zonealarm, sygate, norton and the others will keep you informed of what is trying to connect to the internet. I recommend that you Keep using them both.

The thing to be wary of is something I ran across. A hardware (router based) and software (computer based) firewall are fine, but two softwares are bad/a no no. If you have (or upgrade to ) xp sp2, it has a built in firewall that has to be disabled.

The basic theory is, "defense in depth," or in other words, layered security. Thus, having a hardware firewall PLUS host-based firewalls (ie, ZoneAlarm, Norton, BlackICE, etc) is the right way to protect your machines.

Good point. I completely agree. Only one host-based firewall should be active.

This is an urban myth. I have run with Blackice and Zonealarm very successfully for years on the same box - first on NT4, then W2K then XPPro. One will intercept before the other, so typically one sees very little traffic, and only catches what the other misses.