Friday, November 9, 2007

Why You Need a Firewall and How ZoneAlarm is Good for You

If a computer is connected to the internet and it is not protected in some way, then it is vulnerable to attacks by external hackers. These attacks can be quite harmful to the PC and can even result in losing valuable data saved on the hard drive. A firewall is what protects your system from outside attacks and intrusions and ZoneAlarm not only protects with different programs and security levels, but it also informs you if any applications try to connect without you knowing about it and you can then limit which programs can be connected with the web in the first place. There are many reasons as to why you need a firewall and how ZoneAlarm is good for you and your computer.

There are many hackers actively trying to access computers for devious purposes. This unwanted traffic and visitor can steal data and also use your computer for their criminal plans, such as sending out junk emails. A firewall regulates this traffic to different zones, such as the internet or internal networks of which each has a different level of trust. The reasons why you need a firewall and how ZoneAlarm is good for you are numerous, but the main one is to just stop uninvited traffic into your system. The internet, for example, is a zone that has absolutely no trust, whereas private network can be configure to allow more trust. ZoneAlarm is a free tool that takes the firewall a step further and even protects your computer when you have not been working on it. It can be programmed to automatically stop intrusions after a certain period of inactivity or when a screen saver starts.

Why you need a firewall and how ZoneAlarm is good for you goes even further. A firewall must be configured before it can actually do anything and there are not too many that actually understand it and make great mistakes. For one, many use the “default allow” option that comes with a firewall program and do not realize that everything is allowed and that you have to manually block any websites that cause trouble. The ZoneAlarm program, when used together with a properly configured firewall, does more than just limit what traffic comes in, but also lets you specify which of your applications is even allowed to have an access to the internet. The best part about both firewalls and ZoneAlarm is that you can choose levels of trust and what

ZoneAlarm also offers a protection against any worms or viruses that come hidden as a visual basic setup within an email. This program is free to download, easy to use and does not even take up much space on your hard drive. If used with a good firewall that has been configured to best meet your needs then your computer will be safe from outside attacks and unwanted visitors. These are some very good and practical reasons as to why you need a firewall and how ZoneAlarm is good for you.

No comments: