Is a Linksys router considered a firewall?
 

I have broadband cable internet access. To allow multiple PCs access I bought and installed a Linksys 4 port switch. I have left the Linksys with the factory default settings for security, except the admin password. With it's current setup can this router be considered a firewall? As a precaution I have also installed Zone Alarm on my PC. Is Zone alarm overkill?

You can consider your router a type of firewall. It will block all packets, that have not been requested, that try and gain access to your network.

I would not consider Zone alarm overkill because it will stop applications from accessing the internet from your PC without permission.

I have used Zone alarm with my linksys router before. If you have newer firmware, or have purchased the router within say the last year, the linksys router will partner/talk with zonealarm.

firewalls pretty much stop everything from connecting, while the router serves the purpose to block incoming, so my suggestion would to be use both.

Yes it is and according to TechTV, It's a real good one.

Excellent, thank you.

Make sure you update the firmware on the router. Linksys are well known for fixing the bugs within there software.

The linksys routers are not firewalls persay. They only do something call NAT, or Network Address Translation. It is basically the simplest form of a firewall. If you are worried about security, use both the linksys router and zonealarm as the user above stated.

Technically, it's not a firewall. It does Network Address Translation to route connections from the external IP address to various internal connections. As such, only connections you configure can be initiated on the outside (ie: you tell it that you're running a webserver on machine X, so forward traffic for X on port 80 to it).

True firewalls do so much more than simply "block all packets unless specified otherwise", they do stateful packet inspection, etc. NAT is a poor-man's firewall, I suppose.

Running ZoneAlarm or any other software firewall is an excellent idea, even with the NAT solution.