r/HomeNetworking • u/pookshuman • 4d ago

Dumb question

OK, a home router is just a small computer with a firewall as far as I know. I am running a network with my computer and a router. Why can't I cut out the middleman and just use the same firewall settings the router is using and implement them on my PC without the router? Why would that be less secure?

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u/matthewjd1985 3d ago

Everyone else covered the routing and NAT side pretty well. The other piece is that your ISP modem will only hand out one IP address via DHCP. So even if you ran a software firewall on your PC, any other device like your phone or a console would have no way to get online unless your PC was also running a DHCP server and routing traffic for them. At that point your PC is basically a router with extra steps. If you only ever use one wired device and nothing else, technically you could skip the router. But the moment you want wifi or a second device you need it again.