2Wire gateway and software firewall - conflict?

From: LeadingEdge (benferron@aol.com)
Date: 02/12/03 

From: benferron@aol.com (LeadingEdge)
Date: 12 Feb 2003 12:27:24 -0800

Just bought a 2Wire HomePortal 100s to act as a hardware firewall on
my only computer (NAT and SPI). Internet use is mostly typical surfing
and e-mail, not any gaming or hosting a website or anything, but my
wife and I do often connect to our employers' networks over the
internet.

The 2Wire manual claims that I shouldn't run any software firewall
because it will "conflict" with the HomePortal. The manual claims that
the HomePortal does the same thing as the software firewalls. This
doesn't make sense. As far as I can tell, this unit is just a normal
router, with NAT and SPI but nothing else, and many articles I have
seen recommend a router like this AND a software firewall. What gives?
Does anyone know if this "incompatibility" is true, or should I ignore
it and get some software too, or should I return the 2Wire and get a
different router? (I originally bought the 2wire thinking I might
need the phoneline networking feature, but it turns out I don't need
it).

Thanks in advance for any advice. I'm new to the whole networking and
security thing.

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