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WiFi Security

Be sure you connect to wireless access points safely!

We hope these articles help protect your identity and equiptment.

Firewalls are programs or hardware that act as a buffer between your computer and the internet. This page will focus on the best software-based firewalls.

Sometimes software firewalls get a bad rap because they are “too noisy” with the alert boxes. While this can annoy the novice, the alerts simply mean the program is doing it’s job. Just about every software firewall eventually becomes more “quiet” after it learns and remembers which of your programs access the net regularly.

Now that you know the jist of how these programs work, here are the top free programs.

ZoneAlarm

ZoneAlarm is probably the most popular firewall program on the market. It’s initiate alert system lets you know of questionable internet traffic. It’s intuitive alert system has set a standard.

While the free version of ZoneAlarm is good and will protect your system, the Pro version has many additional features and functions that serve to help protect your system even more. If there is one program you’re considering spending some money on, this one is highly recommended.

The following are well-known firewall programs. Like ZoneAlarm above, there are free versions that will do the job and pay versions that give you additional features.

Sygate Personal Firewall
Kerio Personal Firewall

Not running Windows? These are the best free firewall programs for Mac and Linux systems.

Brickhouse (MAC)
FireStarter (Linux)

TESTING YOUR FIREWALL
You can test the current status of your system’s security by probing it with online scanners. These are the best on the web, and are all free. Simply visit one or more of these sites, follow the directions to initiate the tests and wait for the results.

ShieldsUp! - Security expert Steve Gibson’s web-based testing utility.

HackerWatch - Simple probe and port scanning utility.

PC Flank - Another good scanner with some nice options.

Broadband Reports - Java-based applet that will probe your PC.

NOTES
Only one good software-based firewall on your system is recommended. Since these programs will run in the background the entire time your PC is in use, conflicts between more than one program can occur. You could also end up dealing with more alerts, as multiple will most likely alert you to the same questionable activities.

Hardware Firewalls or Routers are commonly used to share broadband access between computers. Just about all modern routers have built-in firewall security.

This is a great first line of defense that will protect you against unauthorized incoming traffic. However, it’s still good to have a software-based firewall running which can alert you of outgoing traffic, in case your system becomes compromised, or you just do not wish to let other software running on your computer communicate with web servers or “phone home”. Windows XP has a built in firewall, which can help detect traffic coming in. However, the main drawback at this time is that it does not detect outgoing traffic.