Posts tagged firewall
Configure Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2
Dec 13th
For Windows XP users Microsoft released a Service Pack through its website. This includes many new features. Windows XP Firewall is one of them. There was a strong conception that there are many security holes in Windows and hackers exploited these holes to spread their viruses. But with the release of this latest service pack which also contains the Firewall, Microsoft has done a good job in making Windows more secure. Here let us see the main features and the configuration tips for making the best use of your windows firewall.
The previous versions of XP Firewall was easy to configure. Previously it was enough to just select ‘Network Connections’ and click the ‘Advanced’ tab and just select the check box for the firewall and you are done. But now, there is a separate icon in the control panel for Firewall. Open the control panel and click on the ‘Security Center’. In the new ‘Windows Security Center’ window you can ‘On/Off’ the windows firewall.
Now click on the ‘Windows Firewall’ link to open the ‘Windows Firewall’ dialog box.
In the ‘General’ tab click on the ‘On’ radio button.
The next tab is the ‘Exceptions’ tab. Here you can specify the programs that you want to allow through the internet. If you have a network and allow your internet to be shared by other computers in your network then you should use this feature wisely. Here you can list the programs that you do want to allow your other users to use. The buttons below (Add program, Add port, Edit, delete) can be used to add or delete a program in the list. A check box is given at the bottom to specify that the firewall should prompt and alert you when a program is blocked by the firewall.
The next tab is the ‘Advanced’ tab. There are three sections in this tab. The first one is the ‘network connection settings’. This is for those heavy internet users who use many networks to connect to internet. If you are a normal internet user then you don’t have to do anything to it. This is equivalent to the ‘Fine tuning’ in radios. You can use this network connection settings to allow or disallow the different network services such as FTP, SMTP etc.
If you have bought another firewall and you know that the firewall you bought is more powerful than the windows firewall then you can ‘off’ the windows firewall and use your favorite firewall instead.
If you are a broadband internet user and your computer is connected to the internet most of the time then make sure that the windows firewall or any other firewall is always turned on.
If no firewall is turned on in your computer then the Windows XP will detect this and alert you.
What is a firewall and why you need it?
Dec 3rd
There two ways your computer can be attacked. Firstly by Viruses and secondly by Hackers/Crackers. To protect your computer you need Anti-virus softwareand a firewall which can be either software or hardware.
Whenever you connect to the internet, there is possibility of your computer being attacked by exploiting security holes in your computer. To find out whether your computer is well protected or you have security holes the following websites can be used to check.
Sygate Tests ( http://scan.sygate.com )
Shields up ( http://www.gre.com/x/be.dll?bhobkyd2 )
PC Flank ( http://www.pcflank.com/about.htm )
The above websites will scan your computer thoroughly and tell you whether your computer has security holes. Most of us know that Anti-virus software is required to protect one’s computer. However anti-virus software is not enough, you need a firewall to fully protect your computer.
Also installing the Anti-virus once is not enough. You need to constantly update it. Even in firewalls you have to review your policies often and update them.
What is a firewall and what are the types of Firewall?
There are both hardware firewalls as well as software firewalls. There are also firewalls with built in anti virus and spam filter softwares. Norton Internet Security, McAfee Internet Security, Zone Alarm Security Suits, Norman Internet Control are some examples of such software available today.
Your computer’s file system and protocols that are used to communicate with other computers which is called ‘Network Stack‘ are often under attack. Therefore if you prevent these two from happening your computer will be safe. To protect your file system, anti-virus software is used while to protect your network stack, firewall is used.
The files that you download from internet and the emails that you receive from others are scanned by the Anti-virus software. If virus is found in them the anti-virus software removes them. Likewise in the computer files that are opened, edited and all files in the computer are scanned and protected by the anti-virus software.
Your computer has many network ports. It is through these ports that you avail many internet services. For example HTTP protocol uses port 80 while FTP protocol uses port 21.
When you are connected to the internet, hackers can find the ports that are open in your computer and use these ports to take control of your computer. By default all ports in your computer is open. Therefore closing all the unused open ports can prevent crackers from entering your computer. This is done using the firewall.
Moreover you can ban any port that you think is unsafe. For example if you need to download files from internet buy do not want hackers to download files from your computer then you can configure your firewall to open ‘download’ service of FTP while blocking the ‘upload’ feature.
You may have heard of the MPS-Blaster worm that attacked many computers and destroyed them. This work entered these computers using port 135. This worm cannot enter those computers in which the port 135 was closed.
If you need a particular port to be open but you are scared that other hackers may use this port to enter your computer then you can use the ‘IDS – Intrusion Detection System’ feature of the firewall. IDS uses Signature based monitoring. If large amount of data is copied to the computer’s buffer through a particular port then the IDS detects this behavior and alerts the user. Note that all firewalls do not have this feature.
There are three types of firewall namely, Packet Filtering, Proxy Server and Stateful Inspection. For home users, small offices and small businesses Packet filtering firewall is sufficient. Companies with big networks can use the proxy server firewall. Stateful firewall is the latest and it is very popular and suitable in all environments.
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