This router's firewall good enough?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
T

trihuynh1995

Honorable
Oct 13, 2012
28
0
10,530
I just bought this router: TP-LINK TL-WR841ND Wireless N300 Home Router. Since it is fairly cheap, I am not sure if its hardware firewall is good enough for protection if paired with Norton Internet Security firewall? The specification listed that it has IP, MAC, and URL filtering but I did not see any mentioned about firewall at all.

I am just finished setting up the internet last week and have been using the modem that Charter gave me since then. Until I found out that it doesn't have hardware firewall built in then I ordered that router.

What worried me is that during thoes couple days I have used my credit and debit card to buy stuffs online (Newegg, Amazon). All the transactions are being done on my crappy Acer laptop which runs Chromebook OS. I am pretty sure it does not have any internet security software except for Google Protection software. It must be the easiest thing to hack. Some transactions were paid through Paypal but most were not. I have changed all the passwords and check my bank account constantly every 2 hours or so because I am not sure if my bank information got hacked or any worse thing may happen.

I am like living on fire now and not sure what else can I do?
 
Solution
RealBeast
You are safe with any credit card use, if that gets misused you just inform the CC issuer that it is fraudulent. It happens to me about once a year since I travel a lot and AMEX/VISA just FedEx overnight me a new card wherever I am. Debit cards are a different story, I never use them since the banks will not reverse the charges in most cases until after they investigate and I've seen that take months for some unfortunate folks.

You should be okay though since you were using an Ethernet connection and secure server connections for payments, and now are hopefully using WPA2 security with WPS disabled on the router to prevent a Reaver side attack.

To feel better about your ports, check them with ShieldsUp port scanner from HERE.
Sort by date Sort by votes
RealBeast

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
Sep 13, 2010
17,109
473
104,790
You are safe with any credit card use, if that gets misused you just inform the CC issuer that it is fraudulent. It happens to me about once a year since I travel a lot and AMEX/VISA just FedEx overnight me a new card wherever I am. Debit cards are a different story, I never use them since the banks will not reverse the charges in most cases until after they investigate and I've seen that take months for some unfortunate folks.

You should be okay though since you were using an Ethernet connection and secure server connections for payments, and now are hopefully using WPA2 security with WPS disabled on the router to prevent a Reaver side attack.

To feel better about your ports, check them with ShieldsUp port scanner from HERE.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
B

bk6662

Honorable
Jul 11, 2012
15
0
10,510
Hi TR95,

I agree with RealBeast. Don't stress out too much. You likely had an encrypted SSL connection with PayPal. So not only do you have recourse with your CC company (if your number was compromised), but also with PayPal.

Secondly concerning your wireless router / firewall. A firewall will only help with preventing outsiders from getting in; they don't prevent packet sniffing. Your first line of defense here is making sure you are using whatever security is provided by the router, in encrypting your wireless session. Since it's an N router, I'm sure it came with WPA2. This will prevent somebody outside from hacking into your wireless connection. And your encrypted SSL session will prevent an eavesdropper from seeing anything meaningful in whatever packets they manage to intercept.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom