Behind a router - is a firewall needed?

i concur '' you will not notice much '' both only for inbound, 2 times inbound=inbound.
If behind a Router,only worry is outbound,or not worry at all in my case[nothing valueable left on my disk]

 

Simple example. Cracked s/w sometimes knocks home to say: "I'm cracked"
More comlex example: somebody wanted to steal some info. If you not have such, then you have nothing to worry about.
More complex and more common: due to exploit malware installs hidden smtp server at your computer and broadcasts the spam.

All these examples are from the real life.

 

Hi Jadda:

It depends on you.

What is your risk profile? Do you buy stuff online? Are you concerned about privacy or just inbound packets? Tell us more about your own configuration and SW. What does Norman security suite protect you from? Is it a 2 way FW?

How do you handle DNS? What browser(s) do you use and how are they tuned or are they? Are you wireless? What protocol do you use on that? What have you done about router user id and psw's? Is your router doing SPI? Do you live in a building sharing this router with unknown users?

There is no general answer.

 

I think I understand what you are saying but find it difficult to comment as I have never had such experiences.
(1) Don't buy or use cracked s/w
(2) I do have info that some might want to steal but password protection ought to protect if I ever did get infected
(3) possible but I would have thought that either DeepFreeze would get rid of it or if it managed to survive one of the 20 plus anti-spyware and anti-virus programs run occasionally might have picked it up ?

In summary I can also quote from real life. currently running 7 machines - have been using machines on line since 96 and have somehow managed to get by without getting infected. My take on all this is that user behavior is far more important than the number or type of security programs run. So for me a software firewall would not be something that I "need".