Quote from LJT:
Thanks for all the replies, a question for Greg: none of the pcs will be networked together (cant access each other), would virus' through packets still be an issue?
There is still the possibility that your computer gets attacked from an external source using crafted packets through your hardware firewall/router (even though the probability is slim with NAT configured). You still should have anti-virus installed on the PC.
Not having an anti-virus application that is up-to-date installed on a Windows PC is asking for trouble. You can do without a software Firewall application if the PC is strictly dedicated to trading and is never used for browsing, games, email, etc. Software Firewall applications on your PC must inspect every incoming & outgoing packet using processor cycles, which will definitely slow down the response of your PC for trading.
- Greg