Do I Need A Wired Firewall and a Router?
 

I have two Linux desktops and a laptop running Windows that I would like to connect together in an efficient and secure fashion. What I would like is a wireless router so I can work with my laptop anywhere in the room and I also want a high level of security. I do not really understand anything about networking. I have one wired connection in my room and that is it. My Linux desktops need to connect to the internet through a wired connection.

I am pretty paranoid about security, and I was wondering if a wired firewall was a good idea. I was looking at something like this, but I do not know what if any extra protection a wired firewall provides.

That was just a jumble of questions, but can anyone provide any advice?

It looks like that is a vlan device and not a NAT router. If you want to connect to another site through an encrypted tunnel, then that is what you want. If you want to share an internet connection, look at a NAT router. If you use a wireless router, then there are some things you can do to improve security.

• Disable Universal Plug and Play.
• Use wpa encryption was a long random key. WEP is broken.
• Disable the WAN side configuration interface.
• Disable wireless configuration
• Consider also enabling the Firewalls on the computers as well and only open the ports that you need.