Internet Deadbolts - Hardware Firewalls New Carlisle OH

Posted by : Matt Lake

The great thing about having broadband Internet access is that your door to the Internet is always open. Turn on your computer, and you've turned on your access. That's also the bad thing about it. The Internet is a two-way street, and if your computer's downloading from it at high speeds, hackers could be sneaking out your personal files just as quickly.

Whether you can understand their motives or not, there are bored or malicious souls out there with software that scans IP addresses at random, rattling the virtual back door knobs to see whether they're locked. If they find an open door to someone's computer, they might choose to spy on their files, or take over the computer completely to perpetrate some more wide-reaching mischief.

Either way, it's a nuisance you want to avoid, and the best way to avoid it is by installing a firewall. Like the architectural feature from which its name comes, a firewall stops the spread of disaster. But in most other ways, network firewalls are far more flexible than their bricks-and-mortar equivalent. They can be configured to let traffic through (more like a fire door), and sort out who gets in and who doesn't (like a security guard).

Firewalls come in two basic flavors--software and hardware--and we'll be concentrating on hardware firewalls in this article.

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