Firewall
Security Stuf
I often describe a firewall as a security guard, or a bouncer. Any program that goes through any door on your computer is asked by the firewall who they are and where they are going. Once you, the user, has given that program permission to either access your computer or to access the internet, it is like the program has a all access backstage pass to your system or to the internet, which allows you to accomplish the things you want, like surfing, or playing an online game, or downloading updates for your AVG. Most people understand that they have to give things permission to access their computer, but what they fail to realize is that they need to also allow things to access the internet. The reason for this is that, as the computer user, you want to know what is going into and out of your system. Sure, you don't want someone getting into your computer, but sometimes, the way people get into our computer is by 'giving' us a little program that looks like something that we want, but when we run that program, besides doing for us what it said it would, it also starts to collect information on us and what we do, and report that information back to the creator of the software. This is called a 'Trojan horse' for obvious reasons. (if you don't understand this analogy, rent the recent movie Troy starring Brad Pitt) By having a properly functioning firewall, you, the user, are able to monitor traffic on your system. When you first install the program, it will be asking you about everything that comes into and goes out of your computer, but eventually it will only bug you when something new happens, and that's what you want. Windows XP does come with a basic firewall, but it is designed to only stop outside programs from gaining access to your system, not preventing programs already in your system from getting out. Nevertheless, it is better than nothing. However, I do have a freeware recommendation called Sygate. The company recently was taken over by Symantec, so I don't know how much longer there will be a free version, but the product is still there as of this writing.
Get this stuf
All that being said, one of the best ways to protect yourself online these days, especially if you are on a broadband connection (Cable, DSL or, anything but -- dialup-- ~shiver~) is to get for yourself an inexpensive wired router. That's right, just a basic router is one of the best ways that you can protect your personal information and computer from the internet. How is this possible? As has been explained by Steve Gibson, owner of Gibson Research Corporation, a router can only pass on information to any computer attached to it which has been requested by any computer attached to it. What that means, in brief, is that if someone tries to attack your computer, they are generally trying to initiate contact with your computer with no request from you. If you have a router between your computer and the internet, the router will see that incoming data, but have no place to send it since the data was not requested. Then the router just assumes it is nothing, and drops it. Now, this will not protect you in the event you do inadvertently install a Trojan, since that program is requesting data from outside your computer so the router will pass on data to the Trojan, but it will stop any outside access to your system. Pretty cool, eh? Even better, if you look around a bit, you'll be able to find basic wired routers around for very often less than $30. That's less than most commercial software firewalls, and none of them could ever protect you as well from outside intrusion.
That's all for now!
Update on this post, the free version of Sygate has been disbanded by Symantec. Anyway, check out ZoneAlarm as my new recommendation. Later!
I often describe a firewall as a security guard, or a bouncer. Any program that goes through any door on your computer is asked by the firewall who they are and where they are going. Once you, the user, has given that program permission to either access your computer or to access the internet, it is like the program has a all access backstage pass to your system or to the internet, which allows you to accomplish the things you want, like surfing, or playing an online game, or downloading updates for your AVG. Most people understand that they have to give things permission to access their computer, but what they fail to realize is that they need to also allow things to access the internet. The reason for this is that, as the computer user, you want to know what is going into and out of your system. Sure, you don't want someone getting into your computer, but sometimes, the way people get into our computer is by 'giving' us a little program that looks like something that we want, but when we run that program, besides doing for us what it said it would, it also starts to collect information on us and what we do, and report that information back to the creator of the software. This is called a 'Trojan horse' for obvious reasons. (if you don't understand this analogy, rent the recent movie Troy starring Brad Pitt) By having a properly functioning firewall, you, the user, are able to monitor traffic on your system. When you first install the program, it will be asking you about everything that comes into and goes out of your computer, but eventually it will only bug you when something new happens, and that's what you want. Windows XP does come with a basic firewall, but it is designed to only stop outside programs from gaining access to your system, not preventing programs already in your system from getting out. Nevertheless, it is better than nothing. However, I do have a freeware recommendation called Sygate. The company recently was taken over by Symantec, so I don't know how much longer there will be a free version, but the product is still there as of this writing.
Get this stuf
All that being said, one of the best ways to protect yourself online these days, especially if you are on a broadband connection (Cable, DSL or, anything but -- dialup-- ~shiver~) is to get for yourself an inexpensive wired router. That's right, just a basic router is one of the best ways that you can protect your personal information and computer from the internet. How is this possible? As has been explained by Steve Gibson, owner of Gibson Research Corporation, a router can only pass on information to any computer attached to it which has been requested by any computer attached to it. What that means, in brief, is that if someone tries to attack your computer, they are generally trying to initiate contact with your computer with no request from you. If you have a router between your computer and the internet, the router will see that incoming data, but have no place to send it since the data was not requested. Then the router just assumes it is nothing, and drops it. Now, this will not protect you in the event you do inadvertently install a Trojan, since that program is requesting data from outside your computer so the router will pass on data to the Trojan, but it will stop any outside access to your system. Pretty cool, eh? Even better, if you look around a bit, you'll be able to find basic wired routers around for very often less than $30. That's less than most commercial software firewalls, and none of them could ever protect you as well from outside intrusion.
That's all for now!
Update on this post, the free version of Sygate has been disbanded by Symantec.
Comments
Post a Comment