Re: DSL Firewall Question

DSL routers already come with many firewall features - NAT translation,
address and port filters, port remapping, and NETBIOS blocking.  My gut feel
is that PC based firewall software is for those people who don't understand
or don't want to mess with their router's configuration.  For example,
firewall features in my DSL router must be configured via command line.  Its
not intuitive.  You've got to dig into a reference book and use TELNET in
order to do it.  There's no context sensitive help.  But, after its done,
its done.  To add another firewall behind your router adds unnecessary
redundancy.

On the other hand, you might get a comprehensive GUI interface with context
sensitive help.  It may include software that filters at the content level.
For example, it might filter pornographic content, or virus infected
content.  It might log activity and attempt to classify certain types of
activity as "intrusive" or "abusive".  It might produce reports based on the
log.  It might block users from accessing "unapproved" sites from within the
network.  It might classify some activity as an "attack" and try to block
it.

My question is what features have people found useful, and is the processing
overhead worth it.  Or is basic protection good enough?


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