Firewall

[Smoker]

and all of those routers mentioned are "decent" ones for the task you describe ?

[FirstTeamOPS]

and all of those routers mentioned are "decent" ones for the task you describe ?

The WRT54G series I mentioned? No, I consider them exceptional because it's a great firewall, it's easy to use, configure, and it has alot of features (including wireless WPA2).

It has geek/tweater features like the firmware is fully GNU GPL compliant. The GNU GPL allows for you to use enhanced firmware to add features to the router (mostly through open source projects). The GL is based on Linux.

[HtV]

In context of your first post, if you have a decent router, for most users, you won't need to use an additional firewall on each PC connected to that router.

I agree, but you have to keep away from "certain" sites. I got a trojan or whatever and only found out when i got an email from my provider asking to stop email-relaying (??something like that).
What I mean is: when you don't have a firewall that checks outgoing traffic (xp-firewall doesn't) you won't notice things like that. Otoh it only happened once to me. Ok knock on wood, fingers crossed etc.

[FirstTeamOPS]

That's true. Unfortunately, most people aren't tech savvy enough to use a firewall like ZoneAlarm. Usually they block stuff that's legit thinking it's not... or don't block stuff that isn't legit. My one friend is a perfect example of this... knows nothing about computers except how to get viruses... 'did you think something called akljhsdfuiasdkjyu.exe was a legit program? '