do i need a software firewall?

ok, so i set-up a wireless network in my house. the router i bought has a built-in hardware firewall.

the old router that i'm replacing had a hardware firewall as well, and that's all i ever used (as far as firewalls go) for the past couple of years or so, with no problems.

now i have a couple of laptops hooked-up to this new router. my question is:

now that i'm wireless, is the hardware firewall on the router enough to keep people from messing with my stuff? or should i have a software firewall installed on the laptop as well?

i know it's ok to use both at the same time, but i hate having too many things running on my system at once because i'm weird. i currently have the xp2 firewall disabled.

i think what i'm trying to ask is, is it somehow possible for someone to hack a computer between the router and the wireless laptop?

Use the XP firewall and you will be fine.

I assume you have secured your wireless network with a password?

yea....i followed some rules about how to make it more secure.

i stopped broadcasting the SSID thingy and i enabled the mac filtering option and programmed those.

i also changed the default passwords and made one of those 40 character long ones, but i wasn't sure if that would just keep people out of being able to use my network, or if it was securing the wireless laptops as well?

i guess i will use the xp2 firewall as well, i wanted someone to tell me i didn't need it!

You don't need it.

eh, you should be alright then.

I like to have a firewall installed if only because it tells me what programs are trying to access the internet.

My opinion is that unless you are using WPA encryption with a very strong password, you need a local firewall in all instances where you are using a wireless network.

WEP, and even WPA with weak passwords, is too easy to break.

I lied. You know better than to listen to me though so I dunno why I'm even posting this. Maybe to see the F again.

i have WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]. i have no idea what that means , but i set-up a password with the maximum 63 characters allowed because some website told me to! i did the cut and paste thing.

Holy s***.

You're fine. Don't worry about a firewall.

Just be sure to turn it on if you take a laptop to an unsecured network, like a cafe or something.

yay! that's what i wanted to here!

i don't think i'll be going out of the house with it though.