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[drothgery]

For that type of stuff, you absolutely need a router/firewall. And I much prefer a hardware firewall to software.

Not a security expert, but I'd, err, strongly recommend both unless you're talking about expensive, enterprise-grade hardware firewalls.

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

Kaspersky Security Internet Suite is excellent. Their anti-virus is considered the best in the business attested by the fact that they update hourly. Another excellent anti-virus is NOD32 but it it takes time for configuring it and is not for the novice. I have NOD32 and they upgrade 3 to 4 times a day.

Norton does NOT have a good track record and is a systems hog.

Now as for a good software firewall that is the real kicker here. Of all the things I researched for my new PC nothing was harder to research and to find than a good software firewall. I have Sunbelt's Kerio Firewall. I bought two at the same time and only cost me a total of $15. The problem is the occasional BSODs. Basically a good software firewall is a real pain to find. F-Secure is a decent one enough and rates higher than Sunbelt. Go to Wilders Security Forums and scroll down to their software firewall boards. It is the best on the net that I have found so far.

There are very good ones like Comodo and it is free. Just make sure you know how to configure software.

I wouldn't get on broadband online unless I had a good anti-virus program on each and every PC. Right now I have a router, firewall, Webroot's Spysweeper, and NOD32 and I haven't had an infection since my harddrive was compromised with a backdoor trojan 2 years ago due to my lazyness of no router, no firewall, no spysweeper, with only Norton Anti-virus.

 

[GlassJaw]

Not a security expert, but I'd, err, strongly recommend both unless you're talking about expensive, enterprise-grade hardware firewalls.

Nope, not talking about those.

A Linksys/Cisco router is good enough. While technically not a firewall per se, it does the job. Routers like that actually do NAT - Network Address Translation. It's essentially a "dumb", brute-force firewall.