Do I need a router for my internet connection?

[Decolliber]

We have only one computer at home connected to the internet via a DSL modem. I use Zonelab-Pro as a firewall and Symantec anti-virus (corporate editon), both kept up to date. My ISP is telling subscribers that they should also use a router as another line of defense against hackers, even if you do not want a home network. I would prefer not to have another piece of hardware - more things to go wrong and drive me crazy.
So here are my questions:
1. Do I really need a router or are Zonelabs + Symantec sufficient protection?
2. If I do get a router I would want one with a wired connection to the main computer and a wireless connection to another (future) computer elsewhere in the house. There is a bewildering array of routers with different specifications and I have no idea what to consider. Any suggestions?
3. Will a router slow down the speed of my internet connection?
4. Is there a good web site that will explain "everything you ever wanted to know about routers" or "routers for dummies"?

[emcon5]

If you keep your computer up to date with security patches, and harden it by disabling unused/vulnerable services, you don't need a router.

Tom

[Decolliber]

Originally posted by emcon5
harden it by disabling unused/vulnerable services

Can you elaborate on that for me?

[Bill Verburg]

The hardware firewall in most routers is a nice little extra security feature

[Vipergrün]

I would recommend using Firfox, not Internet Explorer, for your browser, and enable the pop-up blocker, it should be by default. IE is notorius for exploits.

The two products you are using should be sufficient. However, you should see if the firewall product can block inbound access to all privileged ports (1 - 1024). Ports 135-139 are especially wicked for Windoze systems. A lot of the other ports don't matter since you probably are not running services on them, such as 25 for mail server, 110 for pop (email), etc. However, if you happen to get a virus or worm, they can try to bind themselves to those ports.

If you use a router, you can easily disable all inbound access and do port forwarding in the event you need to open up access.

Hope this makes sense.

-Brad

[masraum]

Originally posted by Decolliber

So here are my questions:
1. Do I really need a router or are Zonelabs + Symantec sufficient protection?

Zonelabs and Symantec should be enough, although you may want to consider changing to Trend Micro PC-cillin when your Symantec runs out. Trend Micro is the current industry favorite. Symantec has been sitting on it's laurels and has gotten fat and lazy. Trend Micro is the new younger, faster, stronger kid on the block.

2. If I do get a router I would want one with a wired connection to the main computer and a wireless connection to another (future) computer elsewhere in the house. There is a bewildering array of routers with different specifications and I have no idea what to consider. Any suggestions?

Pretty much any wireless router will do that. Stick with the big names (linksys, dlink, netgear, etc...) and get one that supports WPA protection.

3. Will a router slow down the speed of my internet connection?

nope, not at all. The router is capable of speeds much, much faster than your internet connection.

4. Is there a good web site that will explain "everything you ever wanted to know about routers" or "routers for dummies"?

I'm sure there are probably a ton of websites, books, and magazine articles. I'll look for some later this evening when I get home if no one else has posted one.

As stated earlier, the other important thing that you can do is make sure that you keep up with Windows updates, at the very least, weekly. If you are always on then you can have Windows update automatically when they come out.

Also, it would be a good idea to use Firefox instead of IE. Probably better than 90% of the people on the net use IE, so that's what hackers and script kiddies focus their attacks on.

[slodave]

To add on to the above post - The router will take the I.P. address that is Internet accessible and then the router will give your computer an a private I.P. address. People will not be able to "see" your computer from the Internet or be able to access your computer from the Internet.

A router is a good idea even if you only have one computer.

Dave

[fuelie600]

A router will aslo take the processing load of the software firewall off of your PC. Switching to a hardware firewall should make your internet connection appear faster. (That and switching to firefox...)

[svandamme]

i even run a NAT router @ work , to avoid beeing bugged by IS&T about vulnerabilities or other geeks test machines infecting me with the latest virus...i cannot apply patches to all my boxes all the time, since they are testing machines, i need to replicate enviroments to the spec of my customer... and i cannot have a test enviroment vary every day due to patches coming out... nor can i have firewalls on all my boxes, since i'de be spending more time setting up rules for each reproduce , then i would spend reproducing..

NAT router is rock solid, your machine get's an ip in the 192.168.0.x range, which is unroutable.. that means nobody on the outside, can even adress your pc , it's a private ip , and no internet router will do anything with a packet that has such an ip as destination.. it will simply be discarded...

software routers are not even half as efficient as nat routing...there is always something that get's through i've seen machines get infected simply during the autoupdate fase of an private firewall thingie, or during bootup of the machine...that's how often attacks happen on an open broadband connection...


a nat router and an up to date virusscanner is the most efficient way to staying safe...the router stops incoming attacks, the scanner stops file infection...