This firewall will block anything that is not "portmapped" to a machine on your network, it does not block outgoing traffic (it has no way to vailidify the traffic going out (so technically a firewall that blocks spyware sending traffic out about your surfing would still be a good idea).

Also the router uses NAT (supplies you a 172.16.1.x address), so even if the firewall gets bypassed the traffic still needs to be forwarded to one of the machines.

As far as security, the firewall/NAT combo in this product as far as I can tell are more secure than anything I have seen for a residental DSL market. If you explore my webpage a little you might understand how I came to obtain the information (mainly the part with my resume)......

Cheeseball

BTW. 800-263-2421 is the support number you would need to call to inquire about more information on the 2wire you have gotten.