by Muneer Mohammad
Every computer connected to internet is open for hackers and intruders. It is very easy any one to break in to your computer and steel your confidential data. Hackers can break in to you PC and violate your system. So, we should use a way to get protection from those fellows.Firewall is there to help you. Firewall is a system specially made for blocking unauthorized access to your PC from the outside world. When a system is protected by a firewall, only the allowed ports are visible to others. No one can break in to your system without your knowledge. Firewall automatically identifies the unauthorized intrusions and block them without reaching to your system according to the knowledge where it learnt from the settings that you or system administrator made.
Basically there are two types of firewalls. One is Hardware and other is Software firewall. Both are wanted according to the situation we are going to implement. You can select a type of firewall that best fits to your need. When choosing a firewall, we have to consider some most important points.
- The cost
- Type of usage
- Level of security
- Number of user or PCs etc.
Most likely, for a home PC user, according to my knowledge it is enough to use a lite Software firewall. Even though sometimes software firewalls cost more than that of a hardware firewall, it is nothing to say that there are no free versions of software firewalls available. Some vendors are offering free software firewalls nowadays. In my home PC, I am too using a free version of COMODO personal firewall. It is very good enough for a normal PC user. If you find that it is not enough to the requirements of your security level, you can search for more. Norton Internet Security, MacAfee personal firewall, Zone alarm security suite are some such kind of commercial software firewalls.
When it comes to the large scale of organizations, institution, firms or any other institution where proven security is must, the kind of hardware firewall is the best suit one. Meanwhile, as a software firewall vendor, Microsoft has announced that they can challenge with all major hardware firewalls. Although, what ever they announced, according to my experience and knowledge I can recommend the hardware firewall for its high security and efficiency.
The first benefit of hardware firewall is its efficiency and reliability. As because it work as a separate hardware device without caring about what the operating system, or what the machine configuration, you can use it with any network without taking much consideration about them. Event the machines, servers on the network fail due to any cases, the firewall would stand alone to protect you.
Another important thing to consider about is the number of machines in your internal network. It is important when licensing the product. Some firewall has limited amount of devices while some others have no limitation. So, we have to make a plan on our internal network before think about the type of firewall product.
About the Author
Administrator of http://www.pc4safe.com who periodically provides IT related articles, trouble shooting tips, updates related to network issues and IT certifications. Started IT career as a hardware technician and crossed networks, web development and Currently working as web programmer & Internet Marketing consultant for encode solutions
source:www.goarticles.com
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1 ความคิดเห็น: Responses to “ Getting right protection from firewall ”
By Timur on July 28, 2007 at 1:30 PM
The only thing to add. Look at some firewall tests in the Internet while choosing commercial software. For example, I'm not enough with free versions, so I look at Firewall Leak Tester and choose the Agnitum Outpost Security Suite. It includes firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-banner, anti-spam. And really good, effective and inconspicious work.