McAfee Personal Firewall

Personal firewalls are becoming more popular and more necessary. The Internet highway has its own brand of danger and intruders.

Personal firewalls are designed to help provide the security that computer users need. Without a firewall in place on the computer system, hackers may be able to enter through a security hole.

What is a personal firewall?

A personal firewall is a software program designed for use on a single computer. Its purpose is to protect a single computer that is connected to the Internet from unwanted intruders. A personal firewall is extremely useful for protecting computers that have an Internet connection that remains on constantly.

Believe it or not, small home networks can experience some of the same security issues as large corporations. Personal firewalls are also referred to as desktop firewalls.

What does a personal firewall do?

Personal firewalls are designed to provide continuous secure Internet communications through which no intruder will invade. A personal firewall protects the computer from hackers and offensive websites by setting up a barrier that prevents them from getting through to your computer.

Personal firewalls filter the information that is coming in and going out through your Internet connection. The firewall sets up security rules that are then consistently followed for all Internet transmissions.

How does a personal firewall work?

Firewalls generally use one of three different methods to monitor and control the traffic flow for your computer. The three methods are referred to as: packet filtering, proxy service, and stateful inspection.

Packet filtering involves small chunks of information or data that are analyzed against preset filters. Some chunks will pass and make it through to your system and others will not.

Proxy service involves retrieval of the information by the firewall. The firewall does the sending of the information.

Stateful inspection involves the process of comparison. A comparison is made of only the key parts of the information packet and not the entire thing. The comparison is made against a base of trusted information.

What are the filters?

Personal firewalls allow you to customize the filters on your system. This means that you can add or remove filters as you see fit. Filters can be used on IP addresses, protocols, domain names, and ports.

IP addresses are assigned to each and every computer on the Internet. The firewall can block traffic to or from a particular IP address.

Protocols refer to the manner in which communication will take place. Protocols include IP, HTTP, TCP, FTP, SMTP, SNMP, UDP, ICMP, AND Telnet.

Ports, each of which is numbered, are necessary to make the services of the server available. The ports are necessary for use of the Internet.

What can personal firewalls block?

Exactly what the firewall will block depends on the level of security that you set it to have. Obviously, the highest level of security will protect you from the most annoyances. However, it will also block you from many websites.

In general though, a firewall can block the following: spam, remote logins, denial of service, operating system bugs, e-mail bombs, application backdoors, viruses, macros, redirect bombs, and source routing. Some of these are difficult to block, even with a firewall. However, the protection that a firewall can provide is well worth the small investment of time and money needed to set one up on your machine.

What should I know?

Prior to installing a personal firewall, you must be sure to uninstall any existing firewalls from your computer. Some operating systems, in particular, Windows XP, have a built in firewall that you must remove with the Add/Remove program in the control panel. Also, if you previously installed a personal firewall application, then you must use the manufacturer’s uninstall utility to remove it. Once you have installed a personal firewall, you should check it to ensure that it is working.

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