October 18, 2008

Firewall on Your Computer

Firewalls are filters that filter any information passing from and into your computer when you are surfing the Internet. It is up to you to set a filtration level where you can say what information gets in and what gets out. Many people believe that the firewalls are the first level of security and they are not far from the truth. There are many benefits of using firewalls.


If you are using a computer at home or office, it is important to have a firewall. The thing is that most large organizations have very complex firewalls which are relatively impenetrable. These firewalls prevent employees from sending out sensitive company data through emails. They also prevent employees from accessing sites which could be harmful to the organization's network or stop the employees from being productive. In addition, firewalls prevent other computers from accessing the company's network.

The benefits of using a firewall are immense for an organization and that is why it is in such great demand. There are many different levels of configuration possible with firewalls and any organization using them would require trained IT employees to oversee and maintain them.

When we talk about computers at home, the firewall used is not as complex as that used in an organization. Here the firewall just has to protect your home PC and network from malicious software like viruses and spyware. A firewall on your home computer does not allow traffic to enter or go out other than what has been programmed. So, if a program entering your computer is infected with virus and does not conform to the preset criteria stipulated on your firewall, it will block it.

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