I think the main benefit to having a software firewall on a home network is the invisibility, or stealth. My firewall has a backtrace feature, so if I'm hit I can backtrace the 'attack.' I think that's a mistake. If the ping is genuine and if you do backtrace, wouldn't you be telling the person who pinged you that, "hey, you found me."

I'm still learning all this stuff and would appreciate any responses. If I'm right, then the new firewall users would be wise NOT to backtrace, especially if they plan to stay online after doing so.