Aol/Router & SW Firewall Qs

[wannabgeek]

Hi can anyone please awnser this quick Qs

Right i have a Aol BB connection along with a Netgear DG834 Router i understand that the router connects through a Nat making it Kinda safe as nothing is allowed in...But if i do not install the Aol software and just connect through firefox am i still getting the safety from the nat connection Also i have NIS 2006 in the Firewall section would it be OK to lower the settings to Low from thedefault Meduim because of this Nat connection THNX

(sorry if it is a silly Qs )

[CrazyMonkey]

The NAT connection should still be working its built into the Router, I would keep your NIS set to the level that you currently have, its always better to be safe than sorry.

But to be honest i would even touch any Symantec product anymore every product of there's ive had has been worse than poor, so i cant really comment on the level of protection NIS offers.

[ultim8um]

NAT simply stops inbound connection attempts where no corresponding outbound connection was made (e.g. you didn't ask for anything). This in itself will help but it doesn't stop things like malicious websites from redirecting you etc. Always have a firewall of some description installed... Zonealarm free edition or similar is what you should be looking at...

[wannabgeek]

Thanks Guys! I just cannot get my head around it! On my old pc i connect through TCP Lan on a basic FW and i have about 30 progs installed and the Lan icon [2 little screens on the taskbar] hardly ever show as lit unless browsing and packets sent & recieved is always low but on new pc with NIS i have 3 progs installed {apart from NIS} and i have only been on it half an hour and the screens are always lit and packets are already 500k sent and nearly the same recieved!! Whats all that about? Thanks