I am confused. If I hook up a router that has a built in firewall do I still need to run Zone Alarm on my computers? I am not to savvy on this stuff. One router I am looking at has NAT firewall protection, I haven't a clue..

Can someone briefly explain??

All routers provide firewall protection. However, it only protects from inbound traffic. An example of this would be a hacker scanning for a vulnerable computer. Software (like zonealarm) protects inbound and outbound. That means, it would stop a malicious program (virus) from sending info out from your computer. Since you admit you are not to tech savy, i would recommend leaving some software firewall installed just in case you accidentally get a virus or other malware.

-Ryan Adams
http://members.cox.net/rtadams89/

Thanks for the explanation!
But I am not tech savvy about this subject..

So if you have a firewall in your router that protects inbound traffic, how can a virus or worm ever get through? And I think my anti-virus program would catch it also?

Saying that, in reality I could un-install Zone Alarm if I wanted to according to what you said about inbound protection.

Maybe I am not understanding completely.

My understanding in what you said, is that the router firewall protects against inbound traffic. Which means a hacker cannot send a virus to my computer, therefore I cannot send one out either, correct? Unless obtained from another source other than the internet..which is highly unlikely...

If you run a piece of software that has a worm/virus/trojan embedded in it then a router firewall will not stop it, Your anti virus may not catch it till it is too late, I once got 20 instances of troajan dropper on my system which norton did not catch when i scanned the executable file that contained it, it also did not cath the trojan after the file was run, it was only because i had The Cleaner from www.moosoft.com installed that I found out about it. The registry scanner on the cleaner went nuts alerting me to the cahnges that were being made which I otherwise would not have known about until much later.
In short run a firewall on your system, don`t rely on therouter firewall. All my systems run a firewall even though my router has one which can block in and outbound. Better to be safe than sorry.

HTH

Woof

Always proof-read carefully to see if you any words out.