'Firewalls'

[rockpile]

Hi, and help.
There are many things that I use the internet for, and many things I won't - like banking. My concern is security - of my computer. Lately, I've heard of a new 'buzzword' - firewalls. But, while I can find endless lists of vendors for the products, I can find very little information on what they are, what they do, and if they would serve me as a 'moat' around my conputer. Can anyone direct me to a source of the 'abc's of what firewalls are and what the heck they do? Thank-you to anyone who can.
Rockpile

[kaniteo]

Personal firewalls are basically software products that prevent intrusion to your computer when you are on-line. Your information can be compromised or your computer may become an unwitting pawn in DOS (Denial Of Service) attacks such as occurred last year with that little bugger in Montreal. DOS attacks send repeated messages to servers and in doing so overload the systems. The hackers use your computer to help send these messages. I don't this is a big issue for rural users, however (connections are too slow), but you may have compromise of other information on your machine such as financial data, e-mail address (useful for spamming the dickens out of you), etc. A firewall is a tool to prevent backdoor access to your machine when you are on-line. Some people say this is only an issue when connected to cable or ADSL but I've seen cases of unwarranted access happening with dial-up connections. You have to be careful when using a firewall that you don't prevent desired access such as collaborative Internet applications like NetMeeting or Firetalk. The software allows you to set permissions for these applications.

I use a free application called ZoneAlarm from www.zonelabs.com. Symantec and McAffee also have commercial firewall products. One neat feature of the Symantec product is that it will allow you to block all those pain in the but banner ads.

The one feature I would like to see in the firewall products is a mechanism that would fire a digital gernade back to the hackers' computers.

'nuff said

[rockpile]

Thank-you Kaniteo,
Your info was very precise and very helpful. One question I have relates to what a friend of mine said, and that is that firewalls are very hard to properly install. Do you concur?
Rockpile

[kaniteo]

I think network firewalls can be tricky in that you are dealing with access requirements for a large number of people. Some of those people may wish to have very strict access rights and are only using the network for browsing the web and e-mail. Other people may need to communicate on an entirely different level, needing access for VOIP (voice over internet protocol) applications or even video-conferencing applications. The trick, therefore, is trying to balance the needs of a few with the needs of many.

Personal firewalls do not have those kinds of issues as you are usually only dealing with one user ( yourself ). Personal firewalls are fairly intuitive and will give you an opportunity to adjust your configurations on the fly or for a one time only situation. ZoneAlarm, for example, will ask you if you wish to give permissions to, say, NetMeeting the first time you use it. After you're finished with the NetMeeting session, you can go into the firewall program and make the permissions permanent. So, basically, configuration is setup as you go. Most of the firewall applications are good at explaining the fundamentals of personal protection as well.

Hope this helps

Happy New Year.
Ted

[cdmars]

I echo what Kaniteo has been said about Zonelabs firewall. Another site is at grc.com that has a test that will demonstrate the vulnerability of your system.

Both are freeware for personal use.