Is it better to sign onto my ISP through a proxy server?

I use an SMC Barricade 4 port Cable/DSL Router with built in firewall. I am on cable connection here through my
ISP. How does this compare?

Thanks,
Allen

I use an SMC Barricade 4 port Cable/DSL Router with built in firewall. I am on cable connection here through my
ISP. How does this compare?

Thanks,
Allen

The SMC Barricade is a good plan for security. It uses Network Address Translation, or NAT for short, which is a protocol that enables a LAN to use a set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a another set of IP addresses for external traffic. Whenever the machines behind the router need to communicate with the outside world, all packets must first flow through the router. The router will then replace the internal IPs of the machines with its own IP and forwards it to the machines residing outside. By the same token, the external machines will reply to the router, which will in turn determine which machines the various packets are meant for. This means that the outside world will see the IP of the router and not your machine. Sort of like a proxy. Combined with the firewall I would think it makes for pretty good security.

I

The SMC Barricade is a good plan for security. It uses Network Address Translation, or NAT for short, which is a protocol that enables a LAN to use a set of IP addresses for internal traffic and a another set of IP addresses for external traffic. Whenever the machines behind the router need to communicate with the outside world, all packets must first flow through the router. The router will then replace the internal IPs of the machines with its own IP and forwards it to the machines residing outside. By the same token, the external machines will reply to the router, which will in turn determine which machines the various packets are meant for. This means that the outside world will see the IP of the router and not your machine. Sort of like a proxy. Combined with the firewall I would think it makes for pretty good security.

I