Dumb questions about networking & viruses?

[Iam]

Ok, here goes.

I had (& will soon have again) a 2 PC home network. I normally connect to Blueyonder broadband thru my (games) PC1 (currently deceased), & my PC2 (normal browser/Word doc writer) connects via the games machine.

I have it that way around to play online.

Now, if I have XP Pro's firewall enabled on the games machine connection to the internet, will it protect PC2?

Do I need firewall enabled on the connections between the 2 PCs?

PC1 died recently. Part of its death throes was Norton finding Welchia on it, but cause of death looks like m/b, HD, or memory fault. Now, how Welchia got on PC1 is a bit of a mystery.

I did virtually all my browsing on PC2. I thought I had the firewall on PC1 enabled. Also, I had Windows Update on automatic (pain in the neck tho it was) so was always up to date with my Windows upgrades, & thought I'd have had to be very unlucky to have got MSBlaster/Welchia as I thought the security holes they exploited were fixed.

Could something I downloaded, like a Windows or a games update, have disabled the Windows XP firewall on PC1? Could Welchia have got by it, or got to PC2 despite the PC1 firewall (if it was on) & then from PC2 to PC1?

[Moby-Dick]

Now, if I have XP Pro's firewall enabled on the games machine connection to the internet, will it protect PC2?

I you firewall your external connection , it should close a lot of external ports inbound to your network ( this is a good thing )

the XP firewall is by no means infaliable , but its better than nothing

Do I need firewall enabled on the connections between the 2 PCs?

You ought not to need to enable the firewall on your LAN connection, as it will probably play havoc with internal filesharing etc

There where 2 updates required to defeat the Blaster type virii's IIRC one prevented it from actually shutting your PC down and the other prevented infections. so its possible that between auto updates you managed to get an infection. I suppose it woudl be intresting to check the update logs and the av infection logs etc.

[Blub2k]

Personally I would use internal software and external hardware firewalls and not use the XP firewall, true it may be better than nothing but nothing is almost better than nothing.

[madwelshboy]

I have had instances where the XP firewall was preventing me share files from pc to pc so I agree it is more trouble than it is worth...........what do you expect its micro$oft !?!

[Barry]

I have known michines on a network to affect each other if only 1 is protected from the net when accessing the network