Guys I've just had telewest broadband installed at home but connecting it to pcs so will be using a network hub/router.

what i want to know is whether to get a network hub with a hardware firewall-( i saw one 4x hub with built in firewall for about £100 at dabs.com) or is it better to get a simple hub and have a software firewall- at the moment one of the computers is running win 95 and zonealarm don't support win 95 so was wondering if the hardware option would be better- what do you guys think?

thanks for the help!!

why not upgrade win 95 to 98 or 2000 or even xp and stick to zone alarm?

I think upgrading to Win98 is a good idea however...
a NAT or hardware based firewall is fine, though a rather expensive solution.
Have you looked at Sygate or Tiny to see if they support Win95?
Both are good firewalls and are free for personal use.

Any of the above are good solutions. Just remember that there is always a way to bypass it, it has been done before but its very hard. What every man made there is always a back door to it. :)

it's 2002, nearly 2003.
you can buy 98 or 2000 dirt cheap and get zone alarm for free.
98 and 2000 are more mature for high speed networking as well.

windows xp + zonealarm work a treat:)

Yes zonealarm is best, but if you need to buy a router, then just buy one w/ a built in firewall, it wasn't until I lost my cable modem did I see how much my router blocked.

I have had zone alarm for a long while, I love it, its also very easy to use & dependable