Is this secure enough?

[Ryukumu]

I've got a DSL line with a router. The DSL connection is on pretty much 24/7 (though the computers are seldomly left on for 24 hours at a time), but the router has a NAT Firewall function in there. Before I got the router, I installed ZoneAlarm on my computer, so I have ZoneAlarm and the router's NAT firewall on.

However, considering that ZoneAlarm does use up a bit of system resources, and the router has a firewall anyway, I'm wondering if having two firewalls up is a bit much. I fully understand that having two firewalls up certainly doesn't hurt, but I wonder if it's unnecessary. Would it be okay to ditch ZoneAlarm and just run on the router's firewall?

 

[jkoXP]

https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 try probing your ports with both, im on just my routers firewall..... and 100% stealth

 

[ttn1]

The correct answer is the only thing that is secure enough is disconnecting your machine from the net and locking it in a vault.

If I were you, I would read some info on firewalling. Google search can be very good for this. It helps immensely to be informed. Zonealarm is pretty good at telling you when your computer is trying to do something on the net that you may not want it to do. The NAT firewall, basically just helps hide the "real" computers behind it from the outside world. The big thing to check here is to make sure all the ports that should be shut down are.

I run a linux NAT firewall at home and haven't contracted any viruses. I do a virus sweep about every 2 weeks with updated virus software. The main things to do to protect yourself from viruses are: use something other than outlook for email, never open emails that look suspiscious, just delete and send an email asking if the person actually sent you something, don't download illegal software. These three things have gone a long way toward keeping me virus free. Common sense is really your best friend here.

I don't run any type of software firewall. I just have my linux firewall which is locked down as tight as I can get it. The bottom line is that you'll really have to decide how paranoid you are.