Firewalls

Firewalls:

Questions from Linda in Lincoln

On local radio station, I listen to two computer nerds. They were talking about fire walls. Recommended one by Zone Alarm and you can download it free from them. What are fire walls about? How does this work? Do I need this?

Linda,

In a literal sense a firewall is a barrier to keep fire from spreading to other areas, effectively keeping the fire out of a "safe" area. In the world of computers a firewall is a program or a piece of hardware that filters incoming, and outgoing, information to and from the Internet. There's usually a set of rules that the firewall uses to filter data, such as blocking certain websites, or blocking access from the outside through FTP or a backdoor created by a virus. The firewall inspects the packet and if it doesn't match up to it's rules, it's doesn't allow it through.

As I said before a firewall is either a program that runs on your individual computer, or is a piece of hardware, like another computer, that filters data. A hardware firewall is more secure because it runs independently of your computer. A software firewall is still secure, but is more vunerable because you could become infected with a virus that might disable the program.

Kerio Personal Firewall is a free software firewall that works very well. For a hardware firewall, many cable/dsl routers have a limited firewall built in. You should do research on whatever product you may think of buying and find out what level of protection it provides, any other functionalities it has, and any known problems with it. Some good places to start your search are Google and
CNET Reviews.

Thanks Linda!