Firewalls

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A firewall is typically (for the home user) a software application that monitors all data/traffic that gets transferred backwards and forwards between your computer and the Internet.

As the Internet is global, the number of connected users is HUGE - some of those users like to get up to mischief, and take advantage of known exploits in your operating system, namely Microsoft Windows operating systems.

There are a number of reasons why a hacker would like access to your computer, including;

• to steal, delete important documents, passwords, and more
• to use your computer to attack another computer, commonly a website performing a denial of service attack ( DoS).

In our experience, Zone Alarm from ZoneLabs has been the best performer - in conjuction with the use of our ' hosts' file.

Once you have ZoneAlarm installed and configured, check out the Gibson Research Corporation website. When the page fully loads, scroll down and click on the ShieldsUp link. Scroll down and click the Test My Shields! button.

Make sure you get the following three responses;

1. Attempting connection to your computer
2. Your Internet port 139 does not appear to exist!
3. Unable to connect with NetBIOS to your computer

If you don't get those responses, find out why, and rectify it as best you can.

Once you're secure there, click on the Probe My Ports! button at the bottom of the page.

The results from this test should come up Stealth! in every case. If not, find out why and rectify it as best as possible.

The grc.com website is a wonderful resource for information on how to secure your connection to the World Wide Web.

To read a more in-depth article on firewalls and how they work read the pc-help.org article on what is a firewall.

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