Need for a Firewall?

I'm running Windows XP-SP3 on a Desktop computer that is hardwired behind a Lynksys router connected to the Internet via Time Warner Cable. My question is whether I really need a firewall other than the XP firewall? I know the XP firewall is of little value, but considering the configuration, wouldn't I be okay with NOD3.0 instead of using the Suite? Thanks.

 

Yes, you'd be fine with NOD32 alone. In fact, I'd recommend it. Eset's firewall won't offer you much - you'd be saving yourself money and resources.

 

Under XP with default account with Admin rights , the Windows Firewall settings can be manipulated easier by any program (simply because of ithe fact it has already gained Admin rights) . That is not so true for ESS (or any other 3rd party firewall) . In Vista , the user at least needs to provide approval to UAC . In addition , ESS's firewall (if in Interactive mode) can help protect the user from malware that communicates with Internet (downloaders , etc.) . ESET's firewall also checks the execuatable for changes and if they try to communicate outside , the firewall will alert.

 

http://samspade.org/d/firewalls.html

 

True, 'Personal Firewall' and 'Firewall' are two different things. It still worth having a layered approach to security - no single layer is infallible nor can it provide 100% protection.

Cheers

 

i have also shiro router witch have firewall but a hardware firewall did not tell you what program is conecting to internet so you must have a firewall on OS
ESS Firewall block many attack that my router firewall did not detect
like these
CodeRed worm detection
SqlSlammer worm detection
RPC/DCOM attack detection
Sasser worm detection
DNS Poisoning attack detection
Port scanning attack detection
SMB Relay attack detection
TCP Desynchronization attack detection
Reverse TCP Desynchronization attack detection
ICMP protocol attack detection