How+Firewalls+Work


 * How Firewalls Work **

There are mean people out there that want very badly to get into your system or network. Maybe they want to steal information, to simply cause as much destruction as possible, or to use your system for their own uses. If you are online a lot or have a broadband connection, the attempts to enter your system may be relentless.

There are three main areas of defense against these threats: Anti-virus Firewall, and Spyware removal.

Here is a concept of:- Firewalls and Anti-virus programs do to protect your system.

.A firewall is not going to stop you from getting a lot of viruses out there, unless it is the kind of viruses that proactively scans systems for open ports like the 32.Sasser that has recently stepped onto the virus scene.

Where firewalls really come into play is in the area of Internet or Network access. There are two basic types of firewalls: hardware and software. A common hardware firewall is a routers. In a small network it sits in-between your PC and modem. These firewalls feature the ability to hide your PC from others on the Internet by assigning you private IP addresses through a process called NAT (Network Address Translation) or DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).

A router will take the Internet address that your ISP has allocated to you and give the PCs the are connected to the router a generic private IP address (not valid for the internet). The other primary job is to close ports (these are numbers that are associated with certain jobs, for example most email clients and servers use SMTP port 25 and POP3 port#110) ports can be a vulnerability as seen in the past and a hacker can have an easy time getting into your PC with ports wide open to the world. When hackers try to scan your network for known vulnerable ports the Firewall simply drops the packets because they contain data that no PC on the network requested.

Software firewalls are a little bit different and they have good points and bad points. First you have to accept that it is always better to have a firewall then not to.

The main difference between the two styles of firewalls is that one is an external device that runs on it is own hardware. The software firewall is an application that runs on your PC. This is the one down side because it is one more application running on your PC while you are trying to surf the web and can cause resource overhead and slow things down in older PCs. In concept the firewalls really are the same, except that one of the biggest differences is a software firewall does not have any address translation services (i.e. NAT or DCHP). Software firewalls do have some really great features however. For instance, a software firewall is great for someone who is new to this area of PCs and wants to learn more. Most of these firewalls have a reasonably easy to understand interface different from the more “Techie” looking router interfaces.

The firewall will pop up and ask you if you want this action to be allowed every time, prompt every time, or deny Internet access to the program. Most software firewalls will also notify you when someone from outside is hitting your firewall and a lot of times you get the IP address of the party on the other end of the actions. Both of these features can be used to further protect your PC, in some cases you might even be able catch a hacker trying to get into your PC by getting their IP address and then asking there ISP what this IP address is doing pinging your IP address.

No doubt firewalls are a necessity if you plan on surfing the web and staying safe. If you do not have one and you have Windows XP you can turn on the built in firewall, it should do an OK job of protecting your system, but it is a little limited in the option department, basically on or off is the most you are going to get with this service. Recommended ones are []+
 * Zone Alarm Pro**

and **Hacker Smacker**. []