Spurious_Inode wrote about this in another post and it got me thinking.

Currently, my home network has 1 Linux box and 4 Windows machines on it.

I have DSL, a 2-wire Homeportal, with the latest firewall update - it isn't heavy duty by any stretch, but a nice addition.

Past that is a standard HUB.

In watching all network traffic, I rarely see anything strange - the occasional ping sweep, but that's about it.

Is there an advantage in this situation to having an internal router?

i.e.

DSL modem > router > network.

I ask because I can see added security advantages, but I am not confident those extra measures are needed given what I have seen on my simple home network.

Are there other advantages that I am missing to this setup? I would love to hear them - I am all for expanding the capabilities I have now.

Thanks in advance.

.: Aftiel