A computer firewall is a vital part of your computers defenses, it is used to protect your computer from the outside world of the Internet. The Internet is basically a giant network, which means that literally millions of computers are all connected together. This is what makes it possible to communicate, and visit websites.
When you put in a web address in your web browser it will send a request to a server (which is just a big computer) which in turn will deliver the website back to you. In other words being connected to other computers is a very good thing. However there are also bad things about it, but to understand that you have to understand how the Internet works.
In any network a computer is given a unique address, this is known as an IP address. Your IP address will be unique to your computer and so identify you exactly, this is exactly the same as your house number. Now consider this, not everyone on the Internet is as nice as you would like. Some of these bad people, known as hackers may try to use the Internet to connect to your computer.
Why would a hacker want to connect to your computer? Well there are many reasons for this, from something as simple to driving you crazy, to trying to steal your identity.
Protecting your PC with Firewall Software
A firewall is a barrier between your computer and the Internet, in other words when you request something it is sent through the firewall before going out to the Internet. The same goes for incoming requests. This means that you can allow or deny certain programs access to the Internet. It is vital that you have some form of firewall protection on your computer, as you are at a lot of risk without it. One of the most advanced pc firewall security suites is Firewall Protector which can be downloaded in seconds by clicking on this link.
Problems with Firewalls
Of course a firewall can also create problems if it is not set up correctly. Basically in the settings of the program you will be able to choose which programs are able to access the Internet, if your web browser is on the blocked list then this will affect your ability to browse the Internet.
If you continually receive the “This page cannot be displayed” error message in Internet explorer, or similar message in other browsers then this could be your firewall.
This can be very frustrating because sometimes your firewall will automatically update itself, then when you restart your computer you are not able to use the Internet
Although a firewall is very important you can't let it affect your ability to use the Internet You're paying for the Internet for a reason and so you need to make sure that your firewall is set up correctly. Firewalls also provide a limited level of protection against spyware, Trojans and viruses although you will also need a specialist anti virus and spyware program. One of my favorite anti virus programs is Micro Antivirus which can be downloaded by clicking this link.
How to stop these problems with the windows firewall
Since Windows XP SP2 windows has been bundled with a built in firewall, this was the biggest improvement in SP2, however not that many people actually rely on it. The firewall will be switched on by default when you install windows or upgrade to SP2.
In order to change the firewall settings you need to open control panel (Start -> Control Panel) then click on the icon marked “Windows Firewall”.
You can use this setting to unblock Internet explorer so that it is able to communicate the Internet again. To do this you do need to make sure that you are logged in to an account with administrative privileges. You can see a list of the permitted programs by looking in the exceptions tab, these are the programs which windows firewall will allow.
You can try turning your firewall off temporarily to find out if it is that causing the problem. This saves a lot of time testing settings only to discover that the firewall isn't the problem.
Who needs a firewall?
Everyone connected to the Internet needs a firewall, although some people argue that people connecting to broadband services or through routers are much safer than dial up connections you would still benefit from using a firewall. When using ADSL your computer will be given a local address and all Internet requests will be sent through the modem, in other words the modem is requesting the sites not you. This is the same for a router and does provide some protection, however more protection is always better!
Cable modems however are different as your computer connects directly to the Internet unless you use a router. In this case you definitely need to use a very good firewall.
Virus
You also need to use a virus scanner and make sure that you update the definitions on a regular basis. Set the virus scanner to update automatically so that you always have the most up to date records.
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