do i need hrdwre AND sftwre firewall?

[tonybradley]

I can't speak for Linksys, but my Netgear cable / DSL router at home does NAT and has a simple port-filtering firewall. By default all incoming ports are blocked (not sure if its literally all- or just the first 1024).

If I want to set up a web hosting machine I can configure it to send port 80 traffic to a specific internal IP address. I can also set up one internal IP address as a catch-all "DMZ" machine where it will allow all traffic while blocking it to the rest of the network.

My understanding is that most of these simple routers (Linksys, DLink, Netgear, Siemens) operate about the same. Check your owners manual or the manufacturer's web site for more details.

[Alpa]

Yea avdven is right . I would try useing Zone Alarm .
~Alpa

[yanksfan]

Well, first of all this is an old post (last sept), and I learned much in the way of firewalls and networking since then. I configured a good ipchains firewall. I disregared iptables long before because it seemed too complicated for me. My kernel is 2.2.22 on Trustix Secure Linux.

I'd like to add an extra hardware-firewall at the border of my network. I'm not too serious about it, but it's worth a shot. I have an old 486 computer (100 mhz, 16 mb ram with Red Hat 7.0 installed). Is that a fast enough PC? If it's not, I won't bother. BTW, when I say "fast enough", I mean that I wouldn't see any noticable speed difference on the internet.