If you are running OS X, you can turn on your built in firewall in the Sharing System Preference. That's probably a good idea for most people with an "always on" connection. If you feel you need something a little beefier, routers with built in firewall support start at around $80. But they do go up rather rapidly from there. You want to find a router with Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI). This means the router inspects every packet coming in and makes sure it was really requested by the host computer(s). This prevents such attacks as denial-of-service (DoS), ping-of-death, syn floods, and others.
The least expensive router I've seen with SPI is the SMC7004FW. Outpost.com has it for about $85. (http://www.outpost.com/product/3340902/) It has a 4-port 10/100 switch, provides SPI, and has VPN, or Virtual Private Network, support for both PPTP (Point-to-point Tunneling Protocol) and IPSec (IP Secure). PPTP is primarily used by Microsoft, while IPSec is the standard used by Cisco and many others. I have not used this particular model, but SMC has been around quite a while and I've had no complaints with their hardware in the past. Hope this helps! Bryan C. Forrest Macintosh Specialist LifeNet http://www.lifenet.org On Friday, July 4, 2003, at 8:38 AM, George H. Yankey wrote: > > Consumer reports has recommended that firewall should be installed if > you are using broadband. How do I go about doing this ? Suggestions > would be appreciated? > > George Yankey > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > | be July 22. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>. > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be July 22. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | This list's page is <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>.
