Firewall Questions?

Question

I'm trying to understand the different firewalls. We have Windows XP Firewall, a Firewall on our Router, and a Firewall with Norton Antivirus. What is the difference between the three? Which should I use?

Answer 1

Lets start with the Firewall in your Router. This is called a Hardware Firewall. They are considered the best and most secure since it is extremely difficult for its setting to be changed by hackers or other programs. This firewall is in a seperate box between your computer and your DSL provider and uses no system resources. Read the data in the manual or at the Router mfgr site and determine if it is a two-way firewall. This is blocking of both incoming and outgoing information not approved by you.

Norton Firewall is a software firewall. It is installed on your computer and uses system resources. These firewall can have their settings changed by other programs. Nortons is a two-way firewall.

You can read many claims that the Windows Firewall is worthless. This is usually made by those that know nothing of what they speak. They are repeating what they read or heard others say. Those others know nothing either. The Windows Firewall does not provide two-way protection. It provides protection for incoming only. If you are properly protected with AV and AS programs the Windows Firewall will provide excellent protection.

Remember, a Firewall is only part of the protection package you need. Having one quality AntiVirus and 3 AntiSpyware programs(full time protection) will protect you extremely well.

If you have a two-way hardware firewall I would use it and the Windows Firewall. They will not conflict and provide excellent protection.

Your Firewall(s) should be set to "Stealth" mode. This prevents your computer from answering "pings". Pings are a way other computer use to confirm there is a computer connected to an IP address. This is also used to locate open "ports" on your computer.

I have the Hardware Firewall in my Router set to "Stealth" and this stops the answering of "pings".

Answer 2

Use both the firewall with Norton and router. The router is the most important one. What the router does is block incoming traffic right at the source so that it doesn't reach your computer, and the Norton firewall will back that up and also distinguish between what's a known virus and what's not.