What is a firewall?

Question: What is a firewall?

Answer: A firewall is basically a virtual wall set in between your computer and the internet. This is to prevent attacks and unwanted connections from getting to your computer. A firewall can either be a piece of hardware or it can be software installed on your computer. If you have a router it will more than likely have a firewall since most modern routers include a firewall. If you have a Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Windows 2000, or Windows Vista, you will have the Windows Firewall installed by default. You can have more than one firewall enabled for extra protection, but if something is not working correctly it is more difficult to find the issue that causes it. A firewall is only effective if it is properly configured. A firewall should be set to deny everything except the exceptions that you have made. If your firewall is set to allow everything through by default, then it is useless and not doing its job. The key thing to remember with firewalls is to allow a program or connection through the firewall only if you know you requested this connection.

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