A Broadband Router is a hardware firewall?

[LiBOC]

Hi guys!

I would like to ask if a broadband router is also a firewall. Same as a normal router.

I did not specially configure it, but only set my router to allow me to hook up to the internet.

1) Does my existing broadband router, already a firewall?

2) Is it possible for someone to access my computer through my firewall?

:eek:

[DMR]

1. Yes- broadband routers have at least some firewalling capabilities built in. All broadband routers on the market today are at least capable of doing Network Address Translation (NAT), which affords a certain level of protection.

2. Ideally, you want a router that also does Statefull Packet Inspection (SPI; you can Google for the meaning of that term). Most of the current versions of broadband routers from the major manufacturers do this as well.

3. Does my existing broadband router, already a firewall?

You would have to give us the exact make and model # in order for us to answer that question, but given what I said above, the chances are probably pretty good that the answer is "yes".

4. Is it possible for someone to access my computer through my firewall?

Unfortunately- yes. Both hardware firewalls and software firewall programs have bugs and/or other weaknesses that are well known to hackers.

[LiBOC]

Dear Moderator

So am I right to say that firewalls can only be down when there are bugs in the software? What about hardware firewalls? They also do have bugs in them??

Apart from bugs, can firewalls(software and hardware) be MOST of time reliable.

1. Yes- broadband routers have at least some firewalling capabilities built in. All broadband routers on the market today are at least capable of doing Network Address Translation (NAT), which affords a certain level of protection.

2. Ideally, you want a router that also does Statefull Packet Inspection (SPI; you can Google for the meaning of that term). Most of the current versions of broadband routers from the major manufacturers do this as well.

3. Does my existing broadband router, already a firewall?

You would have to give us the exact make and model # in order for us to answer that question, but given what I said above, the chances are probably pretty good that the answer is "yes".

4. Is it possible for someone to access my computer through my firewall?

Unfortunately- yes. Both hardware firewalls and software firewall programs have bugs and/or other weaknesses that are well known to hackers.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

Let's work a bit further here...

Dear Moderator

So am I right to say that firewalls can only be down when there are bugs in the software? What about hardware firewalls? They also do have bugs in them??

They can have bugs, but I would rather call them "threats". Firewalls are driven by software, and either a poorly configured firewall, or a new threat that exploits your firewall design, could cause a leak. All firewalls are a mixture of hardware and software. There is no such thing as a pure hardware firewall. Why? Because new threats are discovered, and new attacks are developed, and the manufacturer will want to allow you to update your device to respond to these threats in short order.

I should also mention that firewalls will not stop a virus attack if you "tell" the firewall to let the problem though... for example, you can download an email attachment that is a virus through the firewall. In this particular example, we are talking about two different attacks, and I do not want to distract you from the firewall topic. Firewalls will also not stop known services from being compromised. For example, a firewall on a webserver will not prevent malicious code from attacking the webserver.

Apart from bugs, can firewalls(software and hardware) be MOST of time reliable.

Firewalls are much better than having nothing running at all, unless you happen to have a device on the internet that does not use the internet at all. Of course, in that case why would it be installed, but for academic argument, you could have a computer physically attached to the internet, and the computer could not know how to use it at all. Such a box would be considered safe. Many would also consider it useless.

Are you looking for theoretical discussions on firewalls, or is there something you are particularlly trying to do?

Christian

[DMR]

Thanks for the follow-up Christian. :)

[LiBOC]

Thanks!! I am just trying to understand firewalls. So a last question,

1) a broadband router and zonealarm and AVG(with current updates)... is it sufficient in itself? (Exlcluding reckless usage)

2) Why is it not advisable to have Avast and AVg running together?

3) Zonealarm and my expired Norton Internet Security together?

Thanks for your patience!

Hello,

Let's work a bit further here...

Dear Moderator

So am I right to say that firewalls can only be down when there are bugs in the software? What about hardware firewalls? They also do have bugs in them??

They can have bugs, but I would rather call them "threats". Firewalls are driven by software, and either a poorly configured firewall, or a new threat that exploits your firewall design, could cause a leak. All firewalls are a mixture of hardware and software. There is no such thing as a pure hardware firewall. Why? Because new threats are discovered, and new attacks are developed, and the manufacturer will want to allow you to update your device to respond to these threats in short order.

I should also mention that firewalls will not stop a virus attack if you "tell" the firewall to let the problem though... for example, you can download an email attachment that is a virus through the firewall. In this particular example, we are talking about two different attacks, and I do not want to distract you from the firewall topic. Firewalls will also not stop known services from being compromised. For example, a firewall on a webserver will not prevent malicious code from attacking the webserver.

Apart from bugs, can firewalls(software and hardware) be MOST of time reliable.

Firewalls are much better than having nothing running at all, unless you happen to have a device on the internet that does not use the internet at all. Of course, in that case why would it be installed, but for academic argument, you could have a computer physically attached to the internet, and the computer could not know how to use it at all. Such a box would be considered safe. Many would also consider it useless.

Are you looking for theoretical discussions on firewalls, or is there something you are particularlly trying to do?

Christian

[DMR]

1) a broadband router and zonealarm and AVG(with current updates)... is it sufficient in itself? (Exlcluding reckless usage)

That's a good start, but there's more that you can do in terms of overall protection. There's more information on that in this article.

2) Why is it not advisable to have Avast and AVg running together?

The answer is basically that because the two would be trying to perform the same jobs at the same times, they may conflict with each other's actions. For example, one anti-virus program could interpret the other program's scanning and/or fixing as "suspicious activity" and try to block it.

3) Zonealarm and my expired Norton Internet Security together?

Having an expired version of security or anti-virus products is pretty much useless; renew the Norotn subscription if you plan to continue using that product. In terms of using Norton and ZA together, you can, but if you do you shouldn't use the firewall component of Norton's package. As with running two anti-virus programs, running two firewall programs can cause conflicts and confusion.

[DMR]

Hi PaulPool,

First of all- welcome to DaniWeb :)

We ask that members not tag their questions on to a thread previously started by another member (regardless of how similar your problem might seem). Not only does it divert the focus of the thread away from the original poster's problem, but it also makes it less likely that you yourself will get the individual attention that you need.

In light of that, I've split your post out of this thread and into its own new thread. That thread can be found here.

For a full description of our posting guidelines and general rules of conduct, please see this page:

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/faq.php?faq=daniweb_policies

Thanks for understanding.

[vicec64]

LIBOC a properly configured router/firewall is vastly better than just having nothng at all. in fact it the chances of someone owning your router with it and your OS/browsers properly configured and locked down are pretty much nil - IF you understand how to config it by:

1.Update your OS at windows update

*Change and set a good password for the router itself.

*Run a Hosts file

*Disable ping from the WAN side

*Disabling UPNP

*Set router to only allow the IP's that are on your LAN to connect

*Understand IE and Firefox (or other) browser security settings (specifcally java script, active-x, cookie handling)

*How to set a few rules and use an outgoing monitoring software firewall to handle something trying to phone home or leak info

*Safe Hex

[herque]

I always get this message on my system whenever i switch it onl like do you want to download Avast and AVg on your system is it safe and can someone please define it?

[keddy1]

I always get this message on my system whenever i switch it onl like do you want to download Avast and AVg on your system is it safe and can someone please define it?

exactly this kind of message used to appear in my screen to just after the booting was complete and I connected to net.but I was scared ,though I dont know if there was anything to be scared at all,but I uninstalled avast.now I dont use it anymore

[ov3rcl0ck]

Hardware firewalls are still software based, and yes there still can be bugs. Hardware firewalls are used to provide a single firewall for a whole network instead of having one on each computer, it may also save you a bit of resources, but for Linux the firewalls built into the kernel and doesn't really use many resources.