A firewall blocks any connections from being established from the outside of the firewall, to the inside. It does however allow connections to be established from the inside of the firewall to the outside. This allows your connection to still be used for common purposes. A firewall can be placed on a network, to protect many computers, or on an individual basis. Many network routers have firewalls built in. With a firewall enabled either on your network, or on your local machine, individuals can not access any shared resources such as files or printers, exploit security flaws, or run denial of service and other attacks on your system. Keep in mind however, if you have a wireless access point or router, the firewall is positioned between your computers and the internet. If an individual gains local access to your wireless network, they will still be able to break into your systems. Read our section on wireless networking for more information. Home    Contact