Network Security and Windows Homegroup

[DCCV44.2223]

3rd party firewall will not do any better than Windows built-in firewall against inbound attacks. Both router and Windows firewall are effective against the types of packet worms that we've seen in the past. However if you have friends over at the house and they bring their laptops and use your LAN, then you'd want your own systems to have a software firewall.

Yes I would say all you need is Windows firewall and a good AV such as Kaspersky AV which have multi-layered defense, but all AV can fail so you need to keep Windows and all internet facing apps, e.g., Acrobat, Java, Flash... patched up to date, and always think twice before running any downloaded executables even though the AV say it's clean.

[Malam]

I do have kids that do occassionaly plug in their laptop to my router. I recently got a router with a "guest" account to ensure that the main network is not unsecure. What I find too is that most of the 3rd party firewalls are bundled with antivirus software so you are forced to use them both. I agree with you that the Windows flavour of these softwares have matured over the years and are getting better and better.