Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 13th Aug 2007 21:38 UTC, submitted by flanque
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Member since:
2005-06-29
I agree with what you are saying, except:
...with a good hardware firewall and AV, it'll be pretty secure.
How many home users running Windows XP have a hardware firewall sitting in their server rack in the living room, do you think? Or were you referring to a consumer-level router? The "firewall" in that type of router is software-based, and isn't a true software firewall at that. It's nothing more than NAT and some (very limited) port forwarding. A true software firewall is best run on the workstation, and a true hardware firewall is more expensive and complicated than most home users can handle. Yes, a home router can be fairly effective at stealthing the computers behind it, but it's an enormous stretch to call it a firewall.
Sorry for the rant, but this is one of my pet peeves when it comes to the technologically misinformed.