semi-newbie question re firewalls/routers

From: Dave K. (canadave@NOSPAMcanada.com)
Date: 04/11/02 

From: "Dave K." <canadave@NOSPAMcanada.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 06:51:31 GMT

Hi folks,

Just hoping someone can tell me if I'm on the right track here...I'm okay
with software, but networking is a new frontier for me :)

I wanted to secure my two-PC LAN at home from basic random security threats.
So I went out and bought the SMC Barricade 4-port router w/printserver. I
now have a couple of questions which are probably the height of ignorance on
my part, but here goes:

1. The traffic logging on the router, after a week, only shows the times
when I've logged into the router as an admin to set it up. Shouldn't I be
getting lots more traffic detection from it, from the Internet at large? I
didn't even get anything else when I tested it with GRC's Shields Up and
Port Probe, though the test said I would see evidence of the GRC IP address
doing its thing on my router log. Is there something else I need to get in
order to fully see traffic? I tried RouterLog, but all that seems to do is
draw from the router's logs and dump it to a text file. Or is the "cigar
just a cigar", and there just really aren't any connection attempts to the
router?

2. Do I need any other security additions to further secure my system from
reasonable threats? Shields Up showed my PC's as being totally secured; but
should I leave it at that, or is there something else I should be doing to
further ensure security?

Thanks in advance for your taking the time to respond!

Dave K.

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