Hardware firewall and software firewall?

[WhiteWulfe]

Essentially the title is how it sounds. Should I have both windows firewall and router firewall?? From what I've read yes, but does that affect internet speed much, and if so is it so small that it's negligible anyways?

[AnonymousGuy]

Your average router firewall isn't really a firewall.  It's only a layer of security because it prevents local ports from being exposed to the internet (hence the need for port forwarding).  You could try turning on packet inspection and whatever if your router supports it, but consumer routers will murder your bandwidth because their CPUs are weak.

[Electronics Wizardy]

FIrewall shouldn't affect speed much in a enviroemtn like this, esp in a home enviroment where seing above 1gig is uncommon and your not normally doing lots of things like deep packet inspection.

 

Yea Id leave both on, they protect you from differnt things.

[homeap5]

I didn't notice any internet speed slowdown using software firewall and I have internet about 700/700. I'm using free Comodo Firewall. It also not slowdown computer as much as AV because it scans only connection, not every file.

[Fleetscut]

technically they are both software firewall. The software on the router will provide security for your network as a whole protecting it from external access. windows firewall is local to your machine protecting it from other machines on the same network. You should have both enabled, but neither should impact speed in any significant way.