The Computer Revolution/Firewall

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

[edit] What a firewall is

A firewall is a type of security for computers both personal and business. A firewall is produced as software or hardware and can be installed onto a computer. The main purpose of a firewall is to examine all the information entering a computer. If the information entering a computer fails to meet a certain criteria the information will not pass through into the computer.

[edit] How a firewall works

There are many techniques used by a firewall to monitor and sort the information accessing your computer. Some of these techniques are packet filters, application gateways, circuit gateways and proxy servers. All of these techniques work off a different characteristic to sort through potential dangerous files to safe files. But the most common aspect found between these techniques is the principle of checking the data through the information which is available. This includes a user defined criteria, a process of monitoring and checking FTP as well as TCP. And in some cases once a firewall has established a secure line to receive information from a server, information can freely flow without being checked.

[edit] How you obtain a firewall

You can purchase software which will have a firewall built into it. Other firewalls can be purchased independently and installed along with other anti-virus software. Some of the main company’s which produce firewall software are McAfee, Norton, Microsoft and Apple. After purchasing firewall software you then follow the installation instructions provided and configure the firewall to your criteria for safe files and potential dangerous files.