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Magic shield-o-maticMar 06 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line It's a magic box to block out the bad and let through the good There are actually several kinds of firewalls, all of which work in different ways, but the essence of a firewall remains the same. People who are allowed to come into your part of the network get in while people who do not get permission are kept out. If your computer is logged onto the internet, you are on a network. Your computer is able to talk to other computers, and other computers are able to talk to yours. Usually, you're the one initiating these conversations as you ask web servers and email servers to please give you some information, then they send it. This does not mean that nobody can start a conversation with your computer, or that you even have to know about it. All they need is your computer's address. This is not as hard to get as you might think, since every single packet of data you send to any computer on the network has your address in it. A firewall keeps people who shouldn't be talking to your computer from starting a conversation. If it's set up correctly, it doesn't block you from doing anything you want to do, but only stops things you don't want to happen. Of course, if your employer is setting up a firewall at work, it may stop something you want to do simply because your boss doesn't want you to do it. This is normal. Firewalls can block traffic both ways, even if they don't have to. Do you need a firewall? Maybe. To figure that out, you can visit another of my Epinions, "Do I Need a Firewall?" at: http://quimax.epinions.com/content_1006542980  |
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