Your best firewall would be to buy a router. They are available from about $40. This will serve as a firewall making your computer a lot safer from attacks. The router will take the brunt of the attacks. Since it is Hardware, it is almost impossible to disable from the outside. (you should make sure to change the password from the default one)
Software firewalls are not as effective and can be disabled.
I'm so computer illiterate. My husband just signed us up for DSL next week and we don't have a firewall. Can I get one free that is reliable? I have anti virus, adaware, and spybot.
If you are connected to the internet AT ALL, you need a firewall-
dialup connection included.
There's a number of free, reliable firewalls.
(Usually, there's at least one free, reliable program for
EVERYTHING.)
I've never had a problem with ZoneAlarm.
Others here have sworn by Avast! and Kerio.
There are other free firewalls people like-like Tiny Personal Firewall
and Sygate-
but those 3 have been recommended by users HERE.
====
If you want to see how desperately you need a firewall,
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pawtucket
Your best firewall would be to buy a router. They are available from about $40. This will serve as a firewall making your computer a lot safer from attacks. The router will take the brunt of the attacks. Since it is Hardware, it is almost impossible to disable from the outside. (you should make sure to change the password from the default one)
Software firewalls are not as effective and can be disabled.
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Ham
The router I use at work has no password.. am I in "trouble" Paw?
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WordWolf
If you are connected to the internet AT ALL, you need a firewall-
dialup connection included.
There's a number of free, reliable firewalls.
(Usually, there's at least one free, reliable program for
EVERYTHING.)
I've never had a problem with ZoneAlarm.
Others here have sworn by Avast! and Kerio.
There are other free firewalls people like-like Tiny Personal Firewall
and Sygate-
but those 3 have been recommended by users HERE.
====
If you want to see how desperately you need a firewall,
go to http://www.grc.com and run the online test "Shields Up".
That will simulate actions by hackers and give you the results.
To give you a basis of comparison, my results say something like
"not only can't we get in, we can't prove there's a computer on your
end of the connection", and I use free programs only.
:)-->
========
You can find the download sites for ZoneAlarm, Avast! and Kerio
pretty easily. Just use THEIR websites and not a 3rd party.
========
Now, EVERYBODY should use a software firewall.
A router is a good addition as a hardware firewall.
The reason you should STILL have a software firewall is that a
hardware firewall does NOTHING to affect OUTGOING traffic.
So, if something DOES sneak in, a router is useless against it.
A SOFTWARE firewall, however, will still control outgoing traffic,
and notify you of attempts to dial out from your computer,
thus telling you something's trying to dial out.
A software firewall thus forms a last line of defense for a
router-user.
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gladtobeout
Thanks Word and Paw.
:)-->
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