How To Choose A Fire Wall Software Program


By: Cavyl Stewart

In the real world a "fire wall" is a fireproof wall that is built to stop the spread of fire from one part of a building to others. In the Internet world a firewall has a similar purpose in that it stops the spread of harmful viruses and attacks from entering your home or office network.

Because of the ever-increasing threats that are appearing on the Internet you no longer have to be in business to need the protection of a fire wall. In fact, every computer that is connected to the internet should have one installed. You'll be a lot happier once you know that you have protected your personal files, information, and financial data, such as credit cards and bank account numbers, from being shared with every crook on the internet.

Here are some questions that you should consider before you choose a fire wall for your PC:

•  What features do I need?

•  Do I want to be protected from viruses, Trojan horses and worms?

•  Am I at risk because I use programs that access the Internet automatically?

•  How much am I willing to spend on a firewall solution?

Here are the common features that are available in almost any software-based fire wall program:

Inbound filtering: protects unknown users or programs from accessing your PC

Outbound filtering: Protects your PC from sending information to the Internet without your permission

Application integrity verification: Verifies that any program you are running aren't sneaking around behind your back and doing things that they shouldn't be doing.

Data encryption: Automatically scrambles any sensitive data that you do allow to be transmitted.

Stealth mode: Hides that fact that your PC is even connected to the Internet so that hackers can't see you.

Pop-up ad blocking: Stops those annoying ads.

Cookie blocking: prevents web sites from sending you cookies without your permission Spyware protection - Blocks dangerous spyware from operating on your PC

There are many software-based firewall programs that can be downloaded from the internet. Most of them come with free trials so you can test each one and choose what's best for you. Although you won't have to be King Geek to install and set up your firewall, there are some adjustments and settings that will have to be tweaked. All of the better firewall programs come with decent instructions and many of the products have help available at their web site.

If you notice that some program that used to work stops working after you install a fire wall then you'll have to make a change in the fire wall's configuration that will enable the program to operate freely. If you find that there is no way to let your previously operating program pass through the firewall then that might be a good indication that you need to try a different fire wall. Be sure to check with the makers of both the software program and the firewall before you give up and change.

About The Author
Copyright © 2004 Cavyl Stewart. Discover 52 Ways To Do More With Software by signing up for my exclusive Free ecourse. Get tutorials, tips, reviews and recommendations you can use right now to help you achieve more, easier, and cheaper! 100% Original content. Visit:

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The most basic anti-virus programs normally have several features to it, the memory resident scan, the system or file scan, and an automated updater. Many more sophisticated programs have many other integration tools that loan in to your instant messengers, your e-mail software and many other programs.

It's very important when you configure your anti-virus software to always make sure you can download new updates every week, if you scan your system for viruses, and your definitions file is out of date it may not even find a problem with your system. Additionally, you should make sure you do in fact scan your system on a regular basis. I personally set my computer to scan around 4 AM so it doesn't bother me.

When you download software, e-mail attachments, or introduce new media (diskettes, cd's, jump drives) in to your system you should scan them before running or viewing them inside another application.

Deciding on which program to use often causes people a lot of head aches. Some anti-virus programs require you to pay each year for a subscription to their virus databases so you can keep your system up to date, others are just expensive out of the box. Additionally, which tends to be the biggest factor in my decision making, is how much resources does the program use.

My favorite anti-virus program for the past couple of years is AVG Anti-Virus, by GriSoft. It's totally free for the personal edition and the updates as well. It has all the major features expected out of an anti-virus suite and is really simple to use and setup.