Latest in trend:

How to use firewalls?

With the Internet technology flourishing to its heights and even home computers having access to it now, it’s also crucial to know the importance of keeping your computer safe with applications such as firewall. As Internet is a public network, when your system is connected to this network, there is a possibility of the intrusion of any other connected computer. To prevent this to an extend firewall comes to the rescue.

A firewall acts as a barrier, literally as a brick wall, trying to keep the bad guys out or if at all they get in to push them out. They are designed to keep the good traffic moving in and out and stopping the bad. Literally, there are several ports in your system that can be opened to the Internet. You need to clearly sort out the ones you need and the ones you don’t. Firewall is essential to have control of your computer. If you lose control on your own computer, you cannot do anything on the computer’s security.

You can find firewalls that can be utilized for commercial as well as personal use in the market. Earlier commercial firewalls used to be expensive, but with the Internet coming home, it has paved way for personal firewalls too. As much as firewalls are important to keep the office computers safe from hackers, it is also equally vital for the safety of personal computers.

There are mainly two kinds of firewalls. A hardware firewall and a software firewall. A hardware wall is often built into internet routers. It prevents your computer address from displaying on the internet. The second type and the widely used one is the software firewall, which protects your system from incoming and outgoing traffic, basically a two way firewall.

Most software companies offer firewalls as a standalone package or as part of an Internet Security Suite. The widely recommended one is the ZoneAlarm from Zone labs. This piece of software has been getting good reviews from IT experts. The most interesting factor being that it’s freely available on the Internet.

Although firewall can be installed as stand alone, it is only a first line of defense. It is always recommended to go for a Security Suite which contains anti virus, anti spyware, anti spam and firewalls as its main component, as all these are important for your computer as far as security is concerned. It is always better to stay safe on the Internet.

© 2008 System-Protector.com All Rights Reserved.