voyager 105 adsl modem

[Harry Kuhman]

We pay more for everything. Prices are around three times cheaper in France...

Well, then you have a local problem, likely political.

Also there's a chance of exploiting any firewall, router based or not.

Sure, but using a router that there are not known exploits for goes a very long way to protect you, particularly if you are an average user and not an extremely attractive target that attracks the most hackers. And using a software firewall as a backup to alert you if anything makes it past the hardware (and knowing enough to realize the hardware has been breached if this ever does happen) still gives a lot more security than a software firewall only.

Which is presumely why you have two firewalls.

I have a hardware firewall because I simply do not believe that a software firewall is very secure. And because I have multiple systems and use a router with NAT capability so they can all be on the Internet. I use a software firewall mostly to detect any software that is sending outbound packets without my knowledge or permission. This, of course, isn't foolproof but it's better than not using one at all. It doesn't catch anything because nothing ever get into my system (have seen plenty of things try to come in by inbound Internet traffic, email and even infections in stuff I downloaded, but have never had a real infection). Still, I have a fire extinguisher in my house too although I never hope to use it.

I going to play with the EciAdsl stuff when I get a chance to see if I can the modem running with Knoppix i'm Bit Torrenting Suse at the moment. Anyway thank you for your time.

Good Luck