A firewall, otherwise known as a firewall, is a special application that allows only those connections that are allowed by the owner of the computer, and thus protects your computer from interference.
By the way, the firewall controls not only incoming connections but also outgoing connections. That is, even if a virus has somehow penetrated your computer and is trying to “leak” your personal information to someone on the Internet, it will be detected, at least attempts to “leak” information will not escape the attention of the program.
Now nobody can get into your computer and extract your information. Uncontrolled traffic leaks have been stopped.
Best Firewalls
And now let’s see what the most popular firewalls are:
1. Comodo Firewall Free
It is one of the most powerful firewalls today, allowing you to block ad downloads and active web page content. It also controls suspicious email. These firewall capabilities are realized by special algorithms that filter network traffic and keep open connections under control.
In addition, these algorithms are able to detect and deny any suspicious activity that takes place both inside and outside your computer, on approaches.
2. Zone Alarm Firewall
Another good firewall with unusual for firewalls abilities to protect your personal computer from various network dangers – ubiquitous hackers, spyware, and many others. How does it do this? Zone Alarm Firewall prevents even the most sophisticated hackers from accessing your protected computer, making it seemingly invisible to anyone on the Internet.
It is also able to block possible sending of any information without permission and protects all programs and the main operating system of the “protected” PC from any kind of malware.
3. Windows Firewall Control
It is a pretty handy firewall, capable of controlling all ports and Internet traffic. In addition, it can block potentially dangerous web pages and advertising pop-ups. Installation is easy, even for a novice user.
Other firewalls
This is not a complete list of existing firewalls and the choice is quite large:
- Kerio Personal Firewall – the most “advanced”;
- Lavasoft Personal Firewall – simpler, but no less effective;
- Tiny Firewall Pro – the best protection for small networks;
- Webroot Desktop Firewall, etc.
The crux of the problem
When they talk about computer security, most users think of fighting malicious computer viruses. But viruses are not the only problem awaiting PC users on the Internet.
Have you ever noticed that even if you have antivirus software with up-to-date databases installed on your PC, your files are very often missing, even though the antivirus behaves calmly and does not react in any way? Or another case – the Internet limit that you expected to use for a whole month, suddenly melted in a few days? You haven’t experienced it? Well, consider yourself lucky.
So what is the reason for these oddities? Actually, the explanation is simple. But first, a little clarification. As you know every PC which has Internet access has a unique IP address, a kind of a telephone number consisting of 4 standard numbers, each number can be from 0 to 255. Your computer needs an IP address to communicate with any other computer on the Internet.
Imagine a situation where several programs from your computer have to interact with the Internet simultaneously, sending and receiving some information. How do they determine where whose data is whose, why don’t they get confused? For these purposes, to divide information flows and deliver it to the addressee, each PC is equipped with so called “ports”, the number of which is more than 65 thousand. It is these that allow a large number of programs to work simultaneously with the Internet.
Suddenly one day you notice that a certain port N is showing some strange activity, it looks like someone unknown is trying to take over your computer. Maybe you told a friend your passwords and now he is hacking into your machine, trying to play a trick on you? What if it is competitors of your company who somehow found out your passwords, and now they know all your secrets, including financial ones? All is lost? What to do?
First of all, you just need to calm down. Remember the most popular questions in our country (and not only in our country)? Yes, yes, yes – “What is to be done?” and “Who is to blame? To the second question you’ll find the answer yourself, but the answers to the first question you’ll find in this article. To avoid such dangerous situations, it is necessary to impose a ban on the communication of your computer on all ports that cause suspicion, that is, the communication will be only with those with whom we want ourselves. Perfect solution, isn’t it? And a special software called firewall allows you to do this.
Bottom line
If you have a standard operating system on your computer, for example, a fairly modern Windows XP with the service pack SP2, then you already have a built-in firewall.
Well, that’s another way to protect your PC. Remember, do not skimp on computer security, it will cost you a lot more money and time to repair.
