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General discussion

Firewall needed on all computers?

by osjo73 Sep 10, 2005 5:19PM PDT

Hi,

I have networked my home wirelessly. I am curious about the security precautions though. Since I am running a router w/ firewall, is it necessary to have a firewall on all computers connected to the network? antivirus? spyware?

I would think since my router is the first line of contact and since it has a firewall, I would not need one on the networked computers. Mem. is somewhat limited with all these processes running, (46) and IE is the only app open.

Thanks for any advice,


My setup:

Pre-N Belkin Wireless Router
-firewall enabled
-WPA security setup (i think)

Win 98 wired to router
-no security measures...

XP home wireless to router
-zonealarm, avast, spydoctor, ad-aware, spyblaster, spyguard, spybot, and some other one-time *place all bad sites in not-trusted zone in IE*

XP prof. wireless to router
-same as above.

-Thanks

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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Yes
by Melati Hitam Sep 10, 2005 5:54PM PDT

All PC need their own protection.

Unless you have a SERVER using state of the art security system.. then, even with that it just a 'maybe' you dont need security on the client computer.

If I may ask,... What are the thing that you want to secure and from what?

Inshort, Use MAC address filtering, turn on WEP/WPA, Turn Off when not in use.

And if you have some data/files, that need to be hidden, do not keep it on the Hard drive... and always BACKUP.

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Jane Doe doesn't need security but...
by osjo73 Sep 11, 2005 12:18AM PDT

everyones always saying you need it....protect yourself...I mean, I just pay my bills online...and they are all https sites, so I guess, I'm securing my resume, google searches, and school papers!

-thanks for the info!

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Get secure.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 11, 2005 1:14AM PDT
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Take it seriously. . .
by Coryphaeus Sep 11, 2005 6:11AM PDT

My daughter powered up her brand new XP machine. Dialed in for the first time. In less than two minutes she was infected and had to do a System Restore. It's that fast, count on it. I installed NAV, Zone Alarm, AdAware, Spybot, and Spyware Blaster. To this day she's still clean.

Another article in PCWorld stated that you can be infected in less than 15 seconds on a cable connection.

Wayne

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to
use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.
Click here to see the CNet faces, learn a little about telephones,
internet connections, spyware removal, and data, and download free software.

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Yup.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 10, 2005 10:56PM PDT

The issue and discussion has been beat to death in the Virus and Security forum so I don't repeat it here.

Bob

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