any point in windows firewall with router..

SameSuspect · 14 Jun 2006 at 01:30

i have a router which has a "nat/firewall" on it. is their any point in having the windows firewall enabled?

Craig321 · 14 Jun 2006 at 01:55

No really, but to be nice and safe you could keep it enabled / get a better one.

Craig.

Burbleflop · 14 Jun 2006 at 09:49

Craig321 said:
No really, but to be nice and safe you could keep it enabled

Keeping it enabled won't make things any safer. The Windows firewall only stops inbound access to the PC and NAT will already be doing that.

andshrew · 14 Jun 2006 at 10:22

Burbleflop said:
Keeping it enabled won't make things any safer. The Windows firewall only stops inbound access to the PC and NAT will already be doing that.

Pretty sure the Windows firewall can block inbound and outbound..

Burbleflop · 14 Jun 2006 at 10:30

andshrew said:
Pretty sure the Windows firewall can block inbound and outbound..

Nope, it doesn't do anything with outbound data.

bledd · 14 Jun 2006 at 10:41

if you forward any ports to your pc, its worth having firewall enabled then

csmager · 14 Jun 2006 at 10:43

bledd. said:
if you forward any ports to your pc, its worth having firewall enabled then

Why? If you're forwarding ports to your PC, surely the reason you're doing that is because you need them.

If you had Windows Firewall on, you'd need to add an exception. Might as well turn it off. I don't use any firewalls on my internal network. NAT protection is more than adequate.

Burbleflop · 14 Jun 2006 at 10:44

bledd. said:
if you forward any ports to your pc, its worth having firewall enabled then

No it isn't.

I still keep a firewall on my PC's, even though they sit behind a Cisco firewall just so that I have control over the OS and the programs.

andshrew · 14 Jun 2006 at 10:54

Burbleflop said:
Nope, it doesn't do anything with outbound data.

My bad, I assumed OneCare used the normal Windows firewall but it seems it uses a modified one which supports both inbound and outbound blocking.