Routers and threat prevention

[Bill Ridgeway]

It is said that a router is safer than an ordinary modem against spyware,
viruses and the like. Is there any truth in this and, if so why please?

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Bill Ridgeway" <info@1001solutions.co.uk>

| It is said that a router is safer than an ordinary modem against spyware,
| viruses and the like. Is there any truth in this and, if so why please?

| Regards.

| Bill Ridgeway


You lumped everything together. Routers that use Network Address Translation (NAT) have a
simplistic FireWall capability. Thus it helps against hackers and Internet worms. Since
Routers work with the TCP/IP protocol, they only help with malware are people who use
TCP/IP. Hackers use the protocol to try to gain access into your computer and so do
Internet worms.

MS Networking using NetBIOS over IP and SMB. Thus by blocking the range of TCP/UDP ports
135 ~ 139 and 445 on the Router, one doesn't allow MS Networking to escape from the LAN
side of the Router to the Internet and Internet activity can't use those ports to access
MS Networking on the LAN side.

I always state to specifically block those ports. Even if you don't specifically block
those ports, NAT by itself will greatly diminish the possibility of such an intrusion.


--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

[FredHead]

David H. Lipman wrote:
> From: "Bill Ridgeway" <info@1001solutions.co.uk>
>
> | It is said that a router is safer than an ordinary modem against spyware,
> | viruses and the like. Is there any truth in this and, if so why please?
>
> | Regards.
>
> | Bill Ridgeway
>
>
> You lumped everything together. Routers that use Network Address Translation (NAT) have a
> simplistic FireWall capability. Thus it helps against hackers and Internet worms. Since
> Routers work with the TCP/IP protocol, they only help with malware are people who use
> TCP/IP. Hackers use the protocol to try to gain access into your computer and so do
> Internet worms.
>
> MS Networking using NetBIOS over IP and SMB. Thus by blocking the range of TCP/UDP ports
> 135 ~ 139 and 445 on the Router, one doesn't allow MS Networking to escape from the LAN
> side of the Router to the Internet and Internet activity can't use those ports to access
> MS Networking on the LAN side.
>
> I always state to specifically block those ports. Even if you don't specifically block
> those ports, NAT by itself will greatly diminish the possibility of such an intrusion.
>
>

http://news.com.com/Hack+lets+intrud...3-6159938.html