What is a Firewall and why do I need one and how do they work?
Firewall - A device or piece of software designed to prevent unauthorized access to a computer system.
Information comes in and out of your computer in tiny chunks of data called packets.
Each packet has basic information like, what computer it is coming from, where it is going, and the payload (information) being sent, requested, or received.
When you get on your home computer and go to log into Facebook or Google+ or any other social media or website, your computer initiates the connection.
It sends a packet OUT of your computer.
The Firewall (most modern hardware and software ones at least) keep track of these initiation requests so it knows you are EXPECTING a response.
If a request comes in from OUTSIDE that is unexpected because there was no corresponding request from your computer, the firewall DROPS the packet. This is how it keeps unknown and unwanted people off your network.
Firewall's also work off of Rules. Allow or Deny based on the type of traffic or source and destination of traffic. So unless you are hosting your own website from your home computer you can probably safely deny all inbound traffic. This is usually the default setting on most routers.
So my computer has a firewall and my router has a firewall do I want one or the other?
BOTH. You want to enable BOTH. This is called Defense in Depth by IT professionals. There are many layers of computer security and they can change everyday.
Having a firewall at the edge of your network does not mean you should disable your computer firewall. If your router was compromised or someone was able to connect and gain access to your network, there would be nothing stopping them if your computer security measures weren't in place.
I'll go into more details on my next post.
Information comes in and out of your computer in tiny chunks of data called packets.
Each packet has basic information like, what computer it is coming from, where it is going, and the payload (information) being sent, requested, or received.
When you get on your home computer and go to log into Facebook or Google+ or any other social media or website, your computer initiates the connection.
It sends a packet OUT of your computer.
The Firewall (most modern hardware and software ones at least) keep track of these initiation requests so it knows you are EXPECTING a response.
If a request comes in from OUTSIDE that is unexpected because there was no corresponding request from your computer, the firewall DROPS the packet. This is how it keeps unknown and unwanted people off your network.
Firewall's also work off of Rules. Allow or Deny based on the type of traffic or source and destination of traffic. So unless you are hosting your own website from your home computer you can probably safely deny all inbound traffic. This is usually the default setting on most routers.
So my computer has a firewall and my router has a firewall do I want one or the other?
BOTH. You want to enable BOTH. This is called Defense in Depth by IT professionals. There are many layers of computer security and they can change everyday.
Having a firewall at the edge of your network does not mean you should disable your computer firewall. If your router was compromised or someone was able to connect and gain access to your network, there would be nothing stopping them if your computer security measures weren't in place.
I'll go into more details on my next post.
Thank you for reading.
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Have a question or comment? Please ask or leave feedback below. I'm here to help you.
Please follow and share this blog for more posts like this.
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