|
|
Firewalls
A firewall is the guardian at the internet's
gate to your home network and/or computer.
Its job is to make your computer as inconspicuous
as possible to others on the Internet and
to plug every unused opening to your computer
in order to reduce the chances of someone
electronically sneaking in unaware.
Typically, a firewall is a part of a separate
computer component called a router that sits
between your personal computer and the modem
connecting your personal computer to the
Internet. The router supplies additional
network connections off of the single connection
coming from your network provider, and the
firewall guards the network channels that
those connections carry.
Installing a firewall is easy;
connect the
network cable from your cable
or DSL modem
to the port marked ‘WAN’ and
connect the
network cables from your home
computers into
any of the ports marked ‘LAN’
on the unit.
Configuring a firewall can be
a bit of a
task, but as a minimum, check
that remote
administration of your firewall
is disabled
and change the administrator
userid and password.
As an option, you may install and configure
firewall software on your personal computer
without the external network component; however,
if you have more than one computer on your
home network, it is easier to control one
point of entry to your home network at the
firewall rather than each firewall application
on all of your home computers. |
|
|
