Somebody told me that you get MUCH better security firewall protection with a router than with software firewalls. Is this really true? Seems like a good software firewall is adequate, but this guy was going on about having a "hard" firewall. Are there any DISadvantages to using a router as your firewall?

I own a netgear fr314 hardware firewall router. Note that this router is not in the lower class of routers nor is it in the upper class. Advantages 1. Takes no cpu time or system resources. 2. Not susceptible to hacker/virus rewriting or disabling. 3. You only have to program once, not for every machine on the network. 4. Blocks Microsoft or governments. 5. Forwards ports anywhere. (WAN side too) 6. Handles hacker/virus attacks better. 7. Emails alerts to administrators.

hi jo, its always better to have both for security reasons. a router, will not stop outgoing data, so its always better to have a virtual firewall to stop this outgoing packets. a virtual firewall alone will not provide 100% security as they can all be tunneled, ask any hacker and given time a hacker will find the virtual firewall's weakness, so a combination of both is much better. there are many good virtual firewalls, those that cost and those that are free, those that are rule based and those that are application based, but a combination of router and firewall is best. the best firewall apparently is Look n Stop, followed by Kerio, Tiny, Sygate, Outpost, and Zone Alarm, not to mention the free ones, so its up to you and your preferances. choose wisely for more info on firewalls go to www.thepublicworks.com security section and link to firewall guide, pratically networked, and firewall security, and firewall and security, also check out the forums at wilders.org, and pcflank. hope this helps, murve

im going to have to agree with murve here having both with a network will help secure it a little better oh yeah ray give me your ip i will show you a little something about routers an how they can be beaten down regardless of how secure they are. also have you ever looked into and IDS set up as well.