Firewalls

Title: Firewalls.

Overview.

Increasingly, many organizations common tasks are to make digital information accessible to a broad spectrum of users over a range of devices and networks. The challenge is to enable their people, customers, and their industry partners to quickly get the information they need, without placing sensitive information at risk. This paper will discuss how firewalls are used to accomplish this task and the importance of installing a firewall to protect your network.

Discussion.

A firewall is a piece of software or hardware that helps screen out hackers, viruses, and worms that try to reach your computer over the Internet. If you are a home user or small-business user, using a firewall is the most effective and important first step you can take to help protect your computer. A firewall helps to screen out many kinds of malicious Internet traffic before it reaches your computer.

It is important that you use a firewall no matter how you connect to the Internet вЂ" with a dial-up modem, cable modem, or digital subscriber line. But, before you connect to the Internet, it is important that you turn on your firewall and antivirus software. If your computer is not protected when you connect to the Internet, hackers can gain access to personal information on your computer. They can install code on your computer that destroys files or causes malfunctions. They can also use your computer to cause problems on other home and business computers connected to the Internet. Some firewalls can also help to prevent other people from using your computer to attack other computers without your knowledge.

One popular firewall that many users are all familiar with is the Windows Firewall. Windows Firewall is part of Windows XP SP2 Home Edition and Windows XP SP2 Professional. Windows Firewall monitors all network traffic on the connections for which it is enabled. The firewall keeps track of all communications that have originated from your computer, and it prevents unwanted traffic from reaching your computer. If necessary, the firewall dynamically opens ports and allows your computer to receive traffic that you have specifically requested, such as a Web page for which you have clicked the address. A "port" is a networking term that identifies the point at which a type of network traffic reaches your computer. The exact ports that you open depend on the type of traffic you want to send and receive. If you have not requested the incoming traffic, Windows Firewall helps block it before it can reach your computer. For special uses, such as networking, hosting online games, or hosting your own Web server, you can select ports that you want to leave open. This allows others to make connections to your computer, but it can also reduce security.

Many people feel that they should run multiple software firewalls for maximum security. Running multiple software firewalls is unnecessary for typical home computers, home networking, and small-business networking scenarios. Windows Firewall serves as the primary defense against a variety of computer worms that are transmitted over the network. A computer worm is similar to a virus, but is self-contained and can spread without the help of other programs. The Internet Connection Firewall helps to protect your computer from these types of threats by hiding it from external users and preventing