no hardware firewall = probs????

How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for £100
inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he says
that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!

We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?
Thanks for your input folks.

"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
> computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
> impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for £100
> inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he says
> that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!
>
> We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?
> Thanks for your input folks.
>
>

Zone Alarm is a good piece of kit. You'd need to install it on both PC's to
be properly effective, but it should be ok. A hardware firewall is nice to
have, and if the connection is left open 24/7 I'd get one.

"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
> computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
> impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for
£100
> inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he
says
> that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!
>
> We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?
> Thanks for your input folks.
>

If I was your son, I would be more worried about senility settling
in...buying from PC world...hmmm

Regards,
Ian

"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
> computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
> impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for £100
> inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he says
> that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!

Any NAT router offers inherent protection against unsolicited incoming
packets. Unless you tell it, by setting up port forwarding, it can't know
which computer to send the packets to, and it will either drop (discard) the
packet or reject it.

> We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?

Zone Alarm, like all "personal firewall" software, reaches parts no hardware
firewall can ever reach: only something running on a PC can control
precisely what applications are allowed to use the network.

Alex

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Graham says...
> How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
> computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
> impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for £100
> inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he says
> that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!
>
> We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?

Tell your son to go and learn about Network Address Translation and how
this protects your computer.

Zonealarm is fine.

--
Conor

Opinions personal, facts suspect.

He is Connor - I just type in the little boxes the things that he tells me
to type in!!

"Conor" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed). ..
> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Graham says...
> > How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
> > computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
> > impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for
£100
> > inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he
says
> > that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!
> >
> > We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?
>
> Tell your son to go and learn about Network Address Translation and how
> this protects your computer.
>
> Zonealarm is fine.
>
> --
> Conor
>
> Opinions personal, facts suspect.

found this on the cdrom !!
IP Filter
The BT Voyager 2100 contains an integrated packet filtering firewall to
enable you to secure your local area network against intrusion. The firewall
is disabled by default.
IP Filtering restricts access to your network from the Internet. You may
specify the IP addresses, ports and protocols that are allowed access. If
your Broadband service supports NAT (Network Address Translation), then your
computers are 'hidden' behind the Voyager Router and your network is
therefore already protected from most common Internet attacks. In this case,
rather than setting up an IP FIlter, a good quality software anti-virus and
Internet security software is recommended to complement the NAT Firewall.
IP Filtering is really useful however for Internet services without NAT
where computers on the network are directly visible from the Internet.
A secondary use of IP Filtering is to restrict access to the Internet from
any or all of the computers on your network. In this way you can stop
certain applications running on computers on your network from accessing the
Internet or certain computers accessing particular Internet addresses.
To enable the firewall:
Select Enabled
Click Apply
Click Add to add new IP Filtering rules depending on your applications and
the traffic you want to allow or block

"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
> computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
> impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for £100
> inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he says
> that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!
>
> We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?
> Thanks for your input folks.
>
>

"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> found this on the cdrom !!
> IP Filter
[snip]
> If your Broadband service supports NAT (Network Address Translation), then
> your computers are 'hidden' behind the Voyager Router and your network is
> therefore already protected from most common Internet attacks.

This was my point (and Conor's).

Alex

"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
> computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
> impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for £100
> inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he says
> that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!
>
> We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?
> Thanks for your input folks.
>
>
According to it's specifications, it does include a packet filtering
firewall - but you need to enable and configure it to your requirements.
see here for specifications -
http://www.voyager.bt.com/2100/downl...0tech_spec.pdf
According to
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/hardware...q3/bt-2000.asp the
previous model? had options for preset security levels eg. High security
only allows outbound web browsing, ftp, telnet, mail and blocks everything
else - so have a look at your user guide, you also need to set-up wireless
security and change any default admin passwords.
Keep using zonealarm also as it offers addition security - eg. can prevent
unauthorised software gaining internet access without your permission.

Dave

Conor <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed) >...
> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Graham says...
> > How essential is a hardware firewall in a home broadband network with 2
> > computers active for 8 hours of the day?? I ask as my son is not very
> > impressed with me for buying the BT Voyager 2100 kit from PCWorld for £100
> > inc a wireless laptop card and a normal card and the 2 adaptors as he says
> > that it hasn't got a hardware firewall like the Linksys one has!!!!
> >
> > We have got Zone Alarm - so would that cover us instead?
>
> Tell your son to go and learn about Network Address Translation and how
> this protects your computer.
>
> Zonealarm is fine.

NAT can also cause major problems trying to get internet games/apps up
and running if you don't know what ports need forwarding....