What are firewalls?
When you connect to a network, or the Internet, especially on broad-band (high speed) Internet, your computer can be attacked directly by worms (computer viruses) or (black hat) hacker. There are two types of firewalls. One is a box you can buy and put between your computer and the Internet. The other is a program that blocks incoming and outgoing Internet connections that could be harmful.
Firewalls can stop some worms from infecting your system. Also, even if a trojan virus is on your computer, a firewall will stop it from doing harm. It can prevent spyware programs from work, and stop (black hat) hackers from hacking in to your system and doing damage or stealing your personal information.
Get a firewall!
There are a number of free firewall programs that you can download. I recommend Zone Labs' Zone Alarm (free).
Other programs
- I've also heard that Sygate's Personal Firewall is an good firewall.
More resources?
- For a comparison of firewall software, I recommend the Home Firewall Guide
- For more information on firewalls, you can also read Wikipedia's Firewall article.
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