[LBo] Firewalls [was: help]

[Anita Lewis]

On 08/05/2007 11:43 PM Steve Hinsley wrote:

> A NAT router will protect you from attackers because it drops 
> unsolicited traffic. It will be antiquate for most home users. What it 
> will not do is protect your computer from other machines on the LAN. 
> This is an issue if you take a laptop to a wireless hotspot.
> 
> I understood a software firewall to mean something like Smoothwall. 
> While I think you do need something between you and the Internet, a 
> dedicated firewall is over kill for the home user. A NAT router will 
> protect you from the outside.

I do not have a network at home; so I use a software firewall on my
desktop computer. I installed Firestarter which came with Ubuntu and is
easy to use.  When I recommended a firewall, I meant software.

Steve, when you say that a NAT router will be "antiquate" for most home
users, what exactly does this mean?  Why? Or did you mean "adequate"?

Thanks for the link.  That is really in depth and I don't have time to
read it right now.  It also seems a little geared toward Windows with
the virus protection discussed. My eyes glazed over a bit with it; so
I'm concerned that a newbie will give up totally with it.  But as I
scanned it, I think it is covering all possible bases.

Back to the original question: For a single computer at home with no
network, wouldn't a software firewall do the same thing (drop
unsolicited traffic) making the NAT router just another layer of the
same thing?

Anita


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://LinuxBasics.org/pipermail/qna/attachments/20070806/7bccf3b2/attachment.pgp