computer question

[MissleMonkey28]

Hey everyone,
I got a little computer question. What is a firewall, i heard its something to protect people from gettin in your computer if thats true does that benefit like buying things online. Also how do you get one set up.

Thank you Greg

[39mto39g]

are generally for bisiness, They limit accsess in and out of a main fram. and don't allow downloads.
Individuals don't need a fire wall, I wouldn't think, You do need a good virous detector like McAfee or Norton and keep it updated.
The best thing you can do for your computer is not to open E-mails from anyone you don't know, AND---- even if you do know the person, look at the subject area first to see if is a FWD from someone else before you open it. If your not expecting an e-mail from your friend call them and see if they sent it. This little advise saves a lot of greef repacing the hard drive.

Ron

[MORTARDUDE]

I was also of the opinion at one time that a personal firewall was not necessary. After I installed mine and saw how many attempts there were to hack into my system, I did a 180 degree turn. Buy the Norton Anti-Virus and Firewall setup and you will see what I mean.

Larry

[39mto39g]

If you have stuff on your computer that you wouldn't want the world to see, then yes you should get a Firewall. But also remember that everything you delete is not really deleted and can be brought back from your delet.
And firewalls are not even close to be 100% foolprof. Depends on what system you are running and what the hacker has. You connect to the internet and you can be goten into.
I seperate my internet drive and my hard drive, My internet is F drive and the C drive is switchable.
Depends on how secret you want to TRY to be. The FBI can download every thing on your computer as soon as you log onto the internet, if they wanted to that is.

Ron

[David]

MissleMonkey28 software firewalls can be good but they tend to be hard to configure properly and will interfere with many of the normal activities you might do with your computer if you tinker with them too much without a good knowledge of what all of your ports do. While I do not recommend against using a software firewall I would recommend using a hardware firewall much more then a software firewall.

By far the easiest hardware firewall to set up would be a NAT (network address translation) firewall. These firewalls are standard items on most home routers. The most universally used and easiest model to set up would probably be from the Linksys family of home routers. They are relatively cheap starting at around $50.00 for the lower end models. They can also support VPN connections if you buy the right model. By default a Linksys router will use NAT to translate your ip on the internet into a set of internal ip's making it much harder for a hacker to get into your system.

Once you have the router set up you will also want to make sure to turn on port cloaking. This will make your ports appear invisible to people scanning them from the outside. By default many software firewalls will send back a closed signal when scanned by a port scanner. This is just as bad as sending a open signal as the hacker now sees you are there and can continue to scan you until he finds a way in. With port cloaking your router will not respond at all to a port scan indicating nothing is there to begin with.

Another important note:

No matter what firewall configuration you opt for remember that if you run chat software (AIM, MSN, YAHOO, etc) or P2P software (KAZZA, Morpheus, etc) you are leaving yourself wide open for attack. These programs usually open ports on your machine without your knowledge to allow file transfers to take place. They are very good at circumnavigating firewalls even at the corporate level and have become a nightmare for many businesses whose employees use them. I would suggest if you must use one of these types of programs that you make sure to disable automatic downloads form remote clients so that you can control everything the program trys to accept.

Good luck

[MORTARDUDE]

Ron :

It is not a matter of what is secret or not. It is a matter of someone trashing your system for the hell of it. I still think it is a good investment. The following website will check your system security free of charge. My system is as protected as it can be.

http://scan.sygate.com/

To each his own.

Larry

P.S. : You are correct. There is no secrecy and no privacy in this society, unless you were born without a birth certificate and never had a social security card....not many I know in either category.

[chilidog]

I agree with David that the hardware firewall is the best. Some people recommend that you have a hardware firewall and a software firewall for the best defense. I have tried running both on one of my computers and it seems to work fine, and like Larry said, you'll be amazed at what tries to access your computer. My software firewall also exposed a little nasty that had been hiding on my computer for a long time. It tried to "phone home" and the firewall busted him. They aren't just for business anymore.

One of the best is also free.

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/applic...201&lid=nav_ho


Chilidog

[MissleMonkey28]

Thanks for all of the info. One last quick question. Would a firewall help me protect my credit card number if i order things online. I'm starting to get into that but I am still a little hesitant i dont want anyone getting my credit number.

[39mto39g]

I got a credit card just for the internet, It has a $500.oo limit on it and notifies me by e-mail when it is used. Don't put your $50,000.oo card number out there. 99% of the companies that do business on the internet are ok. But it only takes one, don't ever give anyone your SS number.
Get yourself a good CD writer and don't save anything on your computer. Or at least back it up on disk, If you lose the hard drive you still have all your stuff.
There are some pretty smart people out there that write programs to go around firewalls. And the more security you have the more of a challenge it is to some people,

Ron

[chilidog]

MM28,
A firewall would help protect your card number while it is stored on your computer, but as soon as you punch in your number and click "send," it's out of your hands. Your security now depends on whoever you sent your number to.

Listen to Ron's suggestions. Some companies also offer internet fraud protection.


Chilidog