wireless router & zone alarm

I currently use Win 98SE and have a US Robotics wireless router and have zone alarm installed. US robotics has told me that I do not need zone alarm if I am using the router, they say it will only slow down my computer. Any ideas???? I hate to disable my firewall if I do indeed need it.

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I'd keep the personal firewall. Firewalling on basic routers tends to rely on Network Address Translation, which won't stop some attacks. Also it won't prevent trojans from operating on your PC.

As in war, defense in depth is good.

 

Thanks, I was at a loss on this. I have the free Zone Alarm Firewall,CA EzTrust Antivirus and BOclean trojan program. Am new with the router and wireless thing, I did enable the WEP.

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Most routers will block all unsolited traffic from the Internet but that doesn't protect you from outgoing traffic. A software firewall such as ZoneAlarm, Sygate, or Norton Internet Security will protect you from both incoming and outgoing traffic. A software and hardware firewall is a good combination.

If you have no software firewall, and a malicious program gets passed your router and makes it to one of your networked computers, it could potentially spread to the other computers on your network.

 

Thanks for the reply and I will leave all in place unless I start having trouble.

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