Re: SImple advice request re home network

From: Duane Arnold (notme_at_notme.com)
Date: 05/01/05 

Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 22:34:24 GMT

"Timbo" <tim.pindar@redyonder.co.uk> wrote in
news:wuRce.22478$G8.1624@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

> Hi, this is a simple advice request as I'm a bit confused after doing
> some research and am new to networking:
>
> Setup - Very straightforward. We have one PC in the house, running XP
> and cable broadband. Due to family expansion we have a notebook PC on
> order, and I've installed a Belkin wireless router so that the
> notebook can use the same broadband connection wirelessly and share
> data with the existing PC. It's possible we might get a 2nd notebook
> as well in due course. We only do standard stuff at home - internet
> surfing, a little bit torrenting, email, MSN messenger etc etc.
>
> On the existing PC I pay for Zone Alarm Pro and Norton Antivirus.
>
> So my questions are:
>
> The Belkin router has a firewall built-in though this doesn't appear
> to be configurable other than off/on.Does this mean that I can get by
> with either no software firewall, or alternatively just settle for the
> free ZoneAlarm for instance?

The Belkin NAT router has no (FW). It's a NAT router for home usage that
may have some FW *like* features but it has no FW in the traditional
sense of what a FW is suppose to do. However, the NAT router does have
some form of protection that it doesn't forward unsolicited inbound
requests.

http://www.homenethelp.com/web/explain/about-NAT.asp

What does a FW do?

http://www.vicomsoft.com/knowledge/reference/firewalls1.html

>
> I assume that if I want to continue with Zone Alarm Pro and Norton
> Antivirus I'll have to pay to install fresh ones on each new notebook?
> (I assume trying to install again from the existing licence won't
> work.)

Products such as ZA and others are not FW(s) either as they do not
separate two networks. They only protect a single machine. It protects
the O/S, its services and Internet applications from attack at the
machine level.

>
> Is there any other solution I should consider, as these costs do start
> to add up once you have more than one PC. Anything designed for
> multiple PCs that is worth it for just 2 or 3 PCs?
>

You can turn the Belkin into a wire/wireless Access Point switch that
wire and wireless machines can use and plug it into low-end FW appliance
that has a real FW.

Any software running at the machine level can be circumvented and
defeated. There is less of a chance since you have the NAT router in
front of the machine(s) stopping the unsolicited scans and attacks. And
some people supplement the NAT router with PFW solutions that can stop
outbound traffic at the machine level that the NAT router cannot stop.
And I am not talking about Application Control either and it's more along
the lines that you can stop outbound by stopping it by port or IP.

Of course you'll need a PFW solution on a laptop if it's being connected
to other networks other than your own.

If you had a FW appliance, you could dump the PFW solution as it's not
needed and it is sucking up machine resources.

You have a wireless solution that you should secure.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelesssecurity/tp/wifisecurity.htm

You can supplement the NAT router with IPsec too that's on the XP O/S.

http://www.petri.co.il/block_ping_traffic_with_ipsec.htm
http://www.analogx.com/contents/articles/ipsec.htm

Duane :)

 

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