Do I Need The Protection Of A Router

When I lived with roomates we had a router to share the internet. When I moved out on my own I sold the router to one of the roomates. I now hear that it's good to have a router between your computer and the internet. My question is do I need it for protection? I have the full McAfee protection package (virusscan, spamkiller etc.) and I also have the windows firewall running. So is the router just overkill or should I get another one to further protect? Also I see routers that have firewall protection, and others that "act" like firewalls (i.e. linksys' befsx41, befsr41 ) what's the difference between these? Thanks

hi dank_64, a hardware NAT router and a software firewall is a good idea. i wouldnt consider it overkill. look for a NAT router that has SPI. it may also prove useful if you decide to add other computers to the same ip address.

It is a good idea to have both a software and hardware (router) firewall!