Security for Home User?

[Susan]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

I am dial-up person. I have personal firewall, antivirus, Spybot, Adaware,
etc. installed. I have not had any problems.

However, we will be switching to DSL soon. I understand that company
provides router. I do not understand exactly what router does. But what is
needed with using DSL and router? Is router basically like firewall and I
still need all the above in first sentence or does it make any of the above
unnecessary?

Thanks for information.

Susan

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin (More info?)

"Susan" <dsnsacree@msn.com> wrote in message
news:OBcEzbKUFHA.3636@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
>I am dial-up person. I have personal firewall, antivirus, Spybot, Adaware,
> etc. installed. I have not had any problems.
>
> However, we will be switching to DSL soon. I understand that company
> provides router. I do not understand exactly what router does. But what
> is
> needed with using DSL and router? Is router basically like firewall and I
> still need all the above in first sentence or does it make any of the
> above
> unnecessary?
>
> Thanks for information.
>
> Susan
>
>

If your present setup works with dial up it should work fine with DSL. Most
consumer routers use NAT (Network Address Translation). This translates your
public IP address (Internet) to a private IP address and allows you to hook
up more than one computer to the public IP address. Each computer will have
it's own private IP address. It is not really a firewall but it does provide
a certain amount of protection. To confuse matters even more some routers do
have a firewall built in. Hope I haven't totally confused you. What it comes
down to is you have a setup that works well, keep using it, the router may
give you even more protection. There is a slim possibility that you may have
to make some minor changes to your firewall to allow your pc to communicate
with the router. The installer or tech support for the DSL provider should
know how to do this if needed. If they don't, post another message back here
with the brand and model of the router and what firewall program you are
using.

Kerry