Keep in mind, all, that a firewall cannot prevent a virus. Viruses can sneak
in over port 80 or 443 just as easily as any other port. A firewall is
designed to prevent intrusion from outside systems.

Unless, of course, we are talking about blocking outgoing ports, which can
be just as important, depending on the organization the firewall is there to
protect. Sometimes you want to prevent the use of certain ports going out so
that something "bad" doesn't happen when using them. Or to prevent a
spyware/malware/virus application from being able to use odd outbound ports
to do their dirty work.

A firewall is for blocking malicious activity. For preventing such
maliciousness from getting on your system in the first place you want to
rely on your virus protection application.

Cheers!
Kyle Elmblade

On Tue, Jul 29, 2008 at 10:54 PM, Thomas Mayer <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Vernon
>
> I somehow missed your latest post till now. I do not use an outbound
> firewall, but I am careful of where I roam on the Internet and what/where I
> download files. If you somehow get a "bad" program on your computer that
> wants to send out private information or other matters, an outbound firewall
> will likely block it.
>
> Tom
>
>  On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 4:02 PM, Vernon Plumlee <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> Thanks for the reply, Thomas, but why would a firewall be needed for
>>> outbound messages? Feel like I'm losing something here... I and my
>>> brother
>>> are the only users and we're a little technically challenged. The router
>>> I
>>> have is a Linksys BEFSR41, 4 port. Do you know if this one would not
>>> suffice
>>> as a firewall for inbound messages. Thanks for your input ! Vern.
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Mayer" <
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>    To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 8:43 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Trend Micro firewall
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  In general, routers act as a hardware firewall for inbound (only)
>>>
>>>
>>>> messages. Before relying on any router as a firewall, the specifications
>>>> for
>>>> the individual router should be reviewed to verify the built in
>>>> firewall. If
>>>> outbound messages are to be subjected to a firewall, another firewall is
>>>> needed.
>>>>
>>>> Tom
>>>>
>>>> Vernon Plumlee wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>  Is it true that a router acts as a hardware "firewall?" Wondered about
>>>>> this as my Trend Micro Antivirus is inhibiting Internet explorer from
>>>>> activating and thus I've had to turn off the Trend Micro Firewall.
>>>>> Also, in
>>>>> the process of installing Trend Micro I was asked to turn off the
>>>>> windows
>>>>> firewall. With both firewalls off I had heard that the router acts as a
>>>>> hardware firewall and I wanted to confirm this with the group. What say
>>>>> y'all ?? Thanks in advance for any input. Vern.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
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