Personal firewall or no personal firewall, that is the question!

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Definitely use both. The

Definitely use both. The hardware firewall will protect him from incoming IP threats, but not from trojans, etc.

A software firewall will also alert him to any extraordinary behavior on his machine, such as a newly-installed worm trying to establish an outbound link to "phone home".

Layered security is the best

Layered security is the best - as long as the layers get along. The fact the 2 firewalls are being provided by different vendors is a plus, too: it lessens the chances of a vulnerability taking both out. However, it does add complexity to the environment and to the users of the protected environment. The key is keeping the complexity from overwhelming the benefits of increased security.

I would definitely continue

I would definitely continue to use the software firewall. If the laptop picked up something nasty the firewalls on the other computers would prevent the spread of that virus or worm within the LAN.

Security should always be addressed in layers like an onion. Hopefully the attacker can't make it through all the way to the center.

You said "MacBook", Right?

You said "MacBook", Right? So he can walk right out of his house any old time and try connecting wirelessly elsewhere. The Linksys won't buy him a thing in that scenario.

I fall under the paranoid

I fall under the paranoid label.

I would continue to use it. I would feel "naked" if I didn't.

Thinking about it though... are we talking the traditional firewall? Because nowadays when I think "firewall" for my PC, my frame of reference is along the lines of a package like Norton Internet Security (NIS) which also includes anti-virus, spyware protection, privacy protection, etc. Things that the traditional firewall can't protect me from. Coming from that perspective, I would think it crazy to turn it off.

Yes, good point. There are

Yes, good point. There are actually a few good reasons why a software or personal type firewall is required these days in addition to the router firewall.

The router's firewall will

The router's firewall will protect you from traffic comming in from the outside but if someone connects to the AP that you don't know about they can access your computer if you don't have a firewall