Should I use a firewall?

So I have COMODO firewall installed, but now I got a connection thru a router with NAT in it, so I heard that should be enough and the software firewall should go, what do you think ?

 

NAT drops bad traffic coming in to your network from the internet, so your firewall would never see any bad traffic coming in. However, your firewall does see outbound connections initiated from your computer going out to the internet. therefore, if you have any type of malware that requires a connection to the internet to relay information, your firewall would prevent that. i run a linux firewall/router/server at home, so i dont use my software firewall anymore. but it might not be a bad idea if you do any risky activities on your network to run a software firewall.

 

Thanks for the answer steve, I also forgot to add what if I set a static IP, does it affect anything in this matter?

 

static ips dont do anything security wise. it doesnt really matter what your ip address is when youre on a network. all that matters is the "network" octets.
for example:
youre on the 192.168.0.0 network. underlined is the network part of the ip address which tell the computer what network youre on.
your ip address is 192.168.0.5 bold is the client ip address.

the network address and the client address is all that is required to communicate with other devices on the network. so if someone guessed you were on the standard 192.168.0 private network, it wouldnt be difficult for them to plug in an 8 in the client part to communicate with your computer. this is where the firewall comes in. if you have unsecured wireless or something, anyone that can access your wireless can hop on your network can communicate.

anyone that can access your network can use an ip address of 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.254 and will be able to communicate with your computer once they find your ip address.

 

tech stuff aside, static ips dont help you with security. a software firewall will.

 

Read this link. Browse to 3) Firewalls: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525