I purchased a linksys plug and play router today, but I know routers come with firewalls. However I already a firewall on my peecee and will activate the firewall on the mac as well. Do I really need to have a firewall on the router?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Got My Router But I've Got a Question
- Thread starter Tuned MP5T
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
First of all, it's always a good idea to run on the router's firewall. If nothing else, it stops your computers from having to deal with it.
Second, the router can be set to forward certain ports to each computer - iChat to the Mac, for example. Without port forwarding, a lot of internet apps/games won't work correctly.
Which Linksys did you get? There might be some nice hacks available for it.
Second, the router can be set to forward certain ports to each computer - iChat to the Mac, for example. Without port forwarding, a lot of internet apps/games won't work correctly.
Which Linksys did you get? There might be some nice hacks available for it.
The question should really be: Now I have a firewall on my router, should I have one on my computers?Tuned MP5T said:
Answer is yes, if only to monitor outgoing traffic. Router firewalls are usually decent, fairly configurable things, but they won't tell you what's communicating outward - this is especially necessary for the PC, but Little Snitch on the Mac has opened my eyes a few times, too. It can't hurt to be overtly cautious.
Disable the firewall on your computers and use the router firewall. Much more secure to have a hardware firewall than a software one. I have a linksys router with firewall and haven't used anything but that for 3 years now, never a problem.
I use both. 2 firewalls are better than one I suppose. If it has wireless, you might also want to turn off SSID broadcast and turn on WEP. Use Little Snitch on the Mac and Protowall on the PC. Lock down all incoming and outgoing ports, use a keylock for your computer case, bolt down the PC or Mac, cable lock the monitors to the PC, lock and bolt down the doors that gain access to those computers, install an active alarm, get insurance, and you should be safe for now.
That was probably more information than you needed but better to be safe than sorry.
That was probably more information than you needed but better to be safe than sorry.
BEFSR41 Cable/DSL Router with 4 Port Switch. I didn't use the cd that came with router. It was just plug and play.jsw said:
EDIT: Its not wireless.
Based on the user guide, all you do is log into the box (didn't read, but if it's like any other Linksys, use a browser to go to http://192.168.1.1 and log in with no user name (i.e., leave it blank) and a password of "admin".Tuned MP5T said:
Then go to the Applications and Gaming tab to set up ports you want to pass through.
Looks like the firewall is always on (not optional, as on some other Linksys products), but I didn't read the whole manual.
Yeah the firewall is always so I guess I don't need to worry about anything for now.jsw said:
Thanks JSW
Lacero said:
I wouldn't say you might want to turn off SSID and and turn on WEP encryption. I'd say you must do both of those suggestions.
As for the firewall question. The hardware firewall in the router is your best bet. It doesn't hurt to have the sofware firewalls in addition to the hardware firewall in the router, but the hardware firewall is enough.
That's my 2 cents.