Just a hardware firewall?

[securitynoob]

Okay, there's been a general lack of activity on these forums, so I'll give you guys something to argue about.

The computer at my house is used by multiple family members. The extent of programs on there include Ventrillo, a couple of online games that don't run continuously, Firefox, and Sandboxie. We have MSE installed and updated, and all windows updates applied.

They won't stop pestering me about a firewall. I've told them that, since we have a NAT router and Sandboxie, a firewall is basically unneeded, as the router itself has excellent security. We pass GRC's SheildsUP! Test (https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 with flying colors.

My aforementioned debate is this: If you're using a sanboxing program, a decent antivirus, and a NAT router, is a software firewall necessary? If yes, should it be for all cases? Or just under certain circumstances (expand in a comment)?

[gusthebus]

Necessary? No. But convenient? Yes.

As we all know, the internet is full of unknown materiel, some, if not most of which is in some way annoying and or harmful. While a decent antivirus, sandboxing program and NAT router will block most things, in most cases it doesn't make sense not to have some sort of silent firewall. Most modern PCs can handle it. In my opinion, they should never be required, but should always be used given the extra resources.

[bogdan]

A software firewall can offer: outbound protection - it will stop malicious software from accessing the Internet. But this is the last line of defense against malware, at this point a malicious process is already running on your PC. Without some sort of HIPS/BB/etc., a simple software firewall can probably be bypassed by malware at this point. With a sandbox installed, this might not be a big thing, especially if the sandbox is set up to prevent access to important user files (My Documents) and the user takes care to prevent a keylogger from stealing passwords.
Inbound protection, between the PC-s connected to the same router. In case computer A gets infected with a worm, the infection might not spread to computer B. However the firewall in Windows can handle inbound protection quite well, especially if the user disables file & printer sharing...

So a third party software firewall might not be absolutely necessary, but it is still a nice thing to have for some users.

[ZOU]

I don't mess with firewalls of any kind, including Windows XP firewall, which is worthless. I use an AV in real time; that is all. I surf all over the internet. If I go somwhere I think is a malware hot zone, I use Sandboxie or Avast's sandbox. I have MBAM and a Kaspersky Rescue Disk on standby.

In your case, since there are multiple users, I suggest that you set up your browser links where they all function with Sandboxie automatically.