Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Ashley Weed
Does a firewall on a router actually put up any substantial form of defense? I run and manage two seperate wireless networks, and I know that it claims "built in firewall", etc. but what is it actually doing inside of there? 
|
A router definately helps in blocking certain viruses and spyware etc. Bascially the built in firewall blocks ports which are normally not used by websites, which therefore stop intrusions. A good firewall should provide a certain amount of software control too. If you have ZoneAlarm, you can set it so it asks you permission for every program that wants to access the internet. When a program which I don't know tries to gain access to the Internet, I block it and get rid of it. You can test your firewall
here. www.grc.com is a great resource.
I am not genius in this stuff, but I learnt a lot as time went on just because I needed to protect some of my files and take extreme care of them. In the process I studied quite a bit. Another fact: When Symantec Corp.(Norton AntiVirus) work with viruses, after they test each virus, they re-format their computer, because they don't trust them, not even if its a minor worm. The Internet is wonderful, just use it carefully
