Firewall for broadband connection

From: René (spamisnietleuk_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 11/10/04 

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 13:12:22 +0100

Dear fellow-subscribers of this NG,

I have a question about the following. Since a while my father (he's retired
and has a lot of spare time now) has a broadband connection, just on one
computer, without doing any special things, only surfing, emailing and
adjusting his favorite toy, Beatnik atomic clock. I have installed ZA on his
computer, which blocks a lot of attacks, as he spends a lot of time surfing
the web (he is crazy about it now he has his broadband connection ;-)).
I have considered buying a hardware firewall for him. I know there have been
very lengthy discussions about the fact whether router-firewalls are really
firewalls or not, and I do not understand everything said in those
discussions.
Of course he has an anti-virus program installed (AVG from Grisoft), and I
have managed to get into his head with a very strict "no opening of email
attachments policy". He is also very strict in checking the automatic update
process, so threats from inside his computer are probably less likely to be
important.

I have found the following device I considered of interest:
http://www.hotbrick.com/Soho401.html.
My questions are (supposing I would buy & install this device) (and please
hold in mind that I am not a network expert at all, I am a newbie to this):

1. Would the protection given by this be better or worse than the one given
by Zone-alarm?
2. Can the system function safely without Zone-alarm installed or would it
still be needed (and in that case, would it add anything or just be useless?
And does my father, in his very simple "setting" or "environment" miss much
from the more expensive devices, or are they only needed when e.g. running
some sort of server?
3. Is configuring a device like that difficult?
4. How does the device update itself? Automatically without my father having
to care about it (I may be a newbie but he is even more ignorant and I can't
visit him every minute of the day).
5. Is it possible (well, it will be possible, but will it be possible for me
after doing some reading and researching on the web, I am a newbie but am a
quick learner and are a bit above the average computer user, though not an
expert) to install a program which allows me to control his computer when
using such a device (my father is an expert in messing things up so it would
be VERY handy if I could fix some things from my place? I suppose this
question is closely related to question 3.. BTW if there is some sort of
program that You would specifically recommend for doing this, Your input
would be very appreciated (I realise this is OT).
6. Are there other devices, let's say below 200 euro's (suppose that can be
more or less compared to 200 US$, it's just an indication), that You would
recommend above this one? If so, which one('s)? Wireless is not needed as
his computer is only 4 m away from the access point.
7. Any other suggestions?

Following is on behalf of my father as well:
First of all, thank You already for reading my long (boring) posting!
Second: Thank You very much in advance for any replies!
Third: English is not my mother tongue, so please be so kind as to forgive
me my errors...

Yours sincerely,
Rene

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