A question for everyone...

[sinjun]

Network security ...

Okay, so I have this home network right?

what security do I need. Have a physical router to begin with ... but other than that, what security features should I have?

Anyone volunteer to help out?

Comments

[courtly.livejournal.com]

It really depends on the holes you open in your router's firewall. Gibson Research... (grc.com) has a web-app (free) which scans your ports for you online to see what's closed and what's vulnerable. It can help you figure out what you need to close down.

As for firewalls on win2k, I used TinyPersonalFirewall (From Tiny Software - http://www.tinysoftware.com) which is free and works like a charm but it can bug you quite a bit for the first little bit (basically, if you set it up in the middle of 3 security settings, it asks you about EVERY unknown bit of traffic on your system, incoming or outgoing. You specifically have to allow or deny (deny is the default), and you can set up a rule so that it doesn't ask you about it again. So for the first few days, you'll have that window popping up whenever any application tries to get out of your computer - the LJ Client, Windows Update, IE, etc. etc. etc.

But after that it runs GREAT.

I'm afraid I can't comment on Linux firewalls, but I KNOW you'll find some free software if you just poke around.