is the standard windows firewall enough by itself?

[tjwoosta]

just curious if the windows firewall would be enough without a firewalled router?

if not, can anyone please recomend some good alternatives (preferably free)

[Dencandy]

In my opinion, no. The built-in Windows firewall is one-way only. It protects you from IN-coming security attacks, but does nothing about trojans, botnets, etc that may have already slipped through so it won't protect you if they try to send OUT information from your computer.

You are best advised to get a proper 2-way firewall. There are some very good free one's available:

Comodo - which now also comes with anti-virus - but it can be a bit fiddly to use: COMODO.

Sygate - no longer supported by the designer, but perhaps the best firewall ever made as it gives excellent feedback on all intrusion attmpts. Get it here: SYGATE.

Other forum members will also recommend some more.

If you get the chance to have a router with a built-in hardware firewall, I say go for it, as that gives you added protection.

[CurlyWhirly]

In my opinion, no. The built-in Windows firewall is one-way only. It protects you from IN-coming security attacks, but does nothing about trojans, botnets, etc that may have already slipped through so it won't protect you if they try to send OUT information from your computer.

You are best advised to get a proper 2-way firewall.

The Vista firewall is outbound as well and I use this as well as a hardware firewall.

I used to use the Sygate firewall (that you mention above) on XP but it's not compatible with Vista :(