I have a distributor in my area that sells the RB450G for only $99. Seems like an awful lot of bang for the buck! Just hope I can set it up easy.
To update I was referring to software firewalls. My first mistake. I trade remote and havent had to deal with this issue until now. I have previously traded on location and the IT infrastructure was in place. From my understanding now I need a hardware firewall/router. For sub $500 what is my best option. My trading rig is not the issue. i73930k, 8gb ram, 256 SSD, Killer2100 network card built into motherboard, fiber optic broadband, etc. I just need security with out latency.
None. Nada. Nihil. Zero. Windows has a decent firewall integrated. At least CURRENT versions have a quite decent. Wont protect you from your own stupidity, but stops other people from reaching you. I keep it around on all machines. And no, it does NOT delay things 1 second.
Trading Technologies generally makes you disable Windows 7 User Account Controls, the Base Filtering Engine, and any anti-virus or firewall applications. It does worry me about security, but so far nothing bad has happened over the years. I have a workstation dedicated for trade execution and nothing else, running X Trader Pro.
Actually, the Intel EXPI9301CT networking PCIe card is the one that is most appropriate for my needs. It uses the Intel 82574L chip. This chip is from 2008. $29.99 OEM on New Egg. The PRO version of this networking card (EXPI9400PT) uses the older 2005 chip (82572) and costs about $60 more. The only difference that I've found being that it supports an Intel feature called Intelligent Offloads. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106033