Introduction to Firewalls

[TeaLeaf]

There is a fairly basic, but useful article on Firewalls (invcluding the Window's one, ZoneAlarm and routers) over here.

If you don't have oen then you should, if you already have one then make sure you get it to do everything it should or can.  The articlaes a pretty good guide, if nto totally comprehensive.

Oh yeah - and firewalls can be free, so if you don't have one then it won't cost you anything to install one!

TL.

[ChimpBoy]

Any sites have a good review section of the various firewall products out there?

[TeaLeaf]

Software or Hardware?

TL.

[ChimpBoy]

Well I was more interested in software, but my brother has just stuck some kind of bloody "Netgear" wirless router on my pc so he can broadband in the lounge, so HW would be a nice to have.

[TeaLeaf]

Well the router probably already has one built in (of sorts), it is almost certainly not worth buying a dedicated hardware firewall.  Have a read of the router manual to see wha tit does, it probably does most of what you already need anyway.  If you still want a hardware firewall then using a knackered old PC to run the free firewall Smoothwall is an excellent start.

TL.

[Anonymous]

Practically Networked have a pretty good review section for hardware router/firewalls.

Remember, the only firewall that is guaranteed is a pair of cable cutters Good security is multi layered!

[suicidal_monkey]

s'funny, I was just about to ask about how to make a home network operate properly through zone alarm...had my housemates laptop able to ping google's ip address, but not the url, so the DNS wasn't getting accross. Anyway, got it going for the moment and then hopefully to be replaced by a dedicated server machine/router-hub