Firewalls

[Ian W.]

dan forgot to mention one tiny thing about software firewalls... they're not for the people who don't know every single detail about their computer. for the casual user, i still say you're better off with a hardware firewall, for two reasons.

1) it's safer, because if the software firewall crashes and becomes disabled, there's a possibility you are now unprotected, and bam, you're hacked and crying. never a good thing.

2) easy of installation and operation. software firewalls are hard to configure, unless you know what should and shouldn't be transmitting on your computer. they are much harder to set up (instead of plugging two wires into a box, you have to install a program, which may be hard for people).

now, on the flip side, if you're a computer nerd, a combo of hardware and software is unbeatable. you are protected from the internet by the hardware firewall, and protect from yourself by the software firewall. how, you may ask? well, a software firewall can (well, most can at least) detect every single input and output over your NIC (Network Interface Card). so, in the hands of someone who understands and knows what they're doing, a software firewall can detect trojans and other nasty things before your anti-virus software does, or even if the anti-virus software doesn't detect the virus.

so, what this boils down to is for the average user, a hardware firewall/router is a much better deal (IMO), and fora nerd, a combo of hardware and software are the best.

also, dan, if you have more than one computer, i believe you need a router, because otherwise, each computer is directly on the WAN (Wide Area Network), and the cable companies don't like that. so, a router mimicks one computer, but really just shares the connection and blocks unwarrented transmissions.

hope this helps, and didn't just confuse you more... feel free to ask if you're completely confused, took me a while to figure out all this stuff too.

*edit:

forgot to mention one thing. those crazy messages are transmissions to and from your PC. some may just be IE or your email client, some may be computer games, some may be windows (yes, windows always wants to get online :/), or any other program on your pc. if you don't know what it is, i block it, but in your case, i think you're much better off buying a hardware firewall, because you're not sure how to use the software firewall. if you do have any problems with the messages, try to post some pics online so we can help you.