[charles.actuary]

I have recently replaced my modem router with a Netgear model DG834v4. The Netgear has a double firewall, an SPI firewall and a NAT firewall (whatever those may be). I already have McAfee Internet Security with its firewall. Are these likely to clash? The Netgear manual suggests disabling any software firewalls, but I'm not entirely keen on this as the Netgear system comes with little explanation, and I have no idea whether it's effective or if I have to do anything to maintain it (download updates??)

So far I have been running the system with McAfee and the Netgear firewalls switched on, and have not noticed any problems.

Any ideas?

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The only thing I would worry about would be if your router cannot get through the firewall. As a rule, I have disabled the Windows Firewall in favor of my Panda Security firewall. It is advisbale to only have ONE firewall running on your machine, because if you have BOTH you can have them clash.

If you would rather use the Netgear firewall, you should probably disable the McAfee Firewall, Or if you want to use the Mcafee Firewall, disable the Netgear Firewall - However, you should be advised that you would have to check the setup to determine how it works, so you can get warnings of things coming through - Perhaps one of our other experts is familiar with the Netgear's Firewall, but as far as I know, I have disabled my router firewall in favor of my Panda Firewall.

Good Luck!!

Brian

[**Brian**]

The only thing I would worry about would be if your router cannot get through the firewall. As a rule, I have disabled the Windows Firewall in favor of my Panda Security firewall. It is advisbale to only have ONE firewall running on your machine, because if you have BOTH you can have them clash.

If you would rather use the Netgear firewall, you should probably disable the McAfee Firewall, Or if you want to use the Mcafee Firewall, disable the Netgear Firewall - However, you should be advised that you would have to check the setup to determine how it works, so you can get warnings of things coming through - Perhaps one of our other experts is familiar with the Netgear's Firewall, but as far as I know, I have disabled my router firewall in favor of my Panda Firewall.

Good Luck!!

Brian

[The Skeptic]

There shouldn't be any problem if you keep both firewalls running because one is on the router and the other on the computer so there is no conflict. I work like that all the time.

[**Brian**]

There shouldn't be any problem if you keep both firewalls running because one is on the router and the other on the computer so there is no conflict. I work like that all the time.

Thanks for the clarification - figured that I may be a tad incorrect

Brian

[The Skeptic]

You are welcome.

[dsenette]

having two firewalls CAN make you twice as secure...as long as they're not both software firewalls (you can have as many inline hardware firewalls as you want)....it just makes setup and troubleshooting that much harder

[charles.actuary]

Thanks everyone, I'll keep running things as they are.