  Recently it has been discussed whether a bow shock ahead of the heliospheric
stagnation region does exist or not. This discussion was triggered by
measurements indicating that the Alfv\'en speed and that of fast magnetosonic
waves are higher than the flow speed of the local interstellar medium (LISM)
relative to the heliosphere and resulted in the conclusion that there might
exist either a bow wave or a slow magnetosonic shock. We demonstrate here that
including the He$^{+}$ component of the LISM yields both an Alfv\'en and fast
magnetosonic wave speed lower than the LISM flow speed. Consequently, the
scenario of a bow shock in front of the heliosphere as modelled in numerous
simulations of the interaction of the solar wind with the LISM remains valid.
