Firewall Question

[Terry]

Hi,

I wonder if I should activate the Internet Connection Firewall for the
following scenario.

Fast internet access is provided by a cable modem for a small office.
The modem is connected to a Linksys router which doesn't have a firewall
built in. Three XP Pro machines (always-on) connect to the internet
directly through this Linksys router. The router does have a few ports
open through port forwarding so that these office machines can be
accessed from home using Remote Desktop. The 3 machines are in a local
network with IP 192.168.x.x. One of the machine will accept VPN
connection from the outside.

Question: Should the Internet Connection Firewall be activated on the 3
office machines? Since any intrusion attempts have to get past the
router and the router only has a couple of ports open, I thought it
would be okay to not enable the firewall.

Your insight is greatly appreciated!

Terry

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

ICF isn't meant for computers on LANs that need to communicate, and I do
suggest you protect your network at the perimeter. I'd pick up a cheap and
cheerful Netgear firewall/router like the FR114P - only about $80 USD. You
can open up port 3389, 173, whatnot, to the computer(s) in question....

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

WinXP's built-in firewall is not designed to be used on internal
LAN connections. The _only_ connection on which you should have ICF
enabled is the direct connection to the Internet.

Internet Firewalls Can Prevent Browsing and File Sharing
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;298804


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. -- RAH