Making your computer system safe has gotten easier over the years. In the past, when the internet started to become available in most people households, it was hard for these people to try and protect their systems. The online security field was young and even the professionals at the time did not know the breadth of attacks that would happen. Now there are plenty of tools for both the professionals and the amateurs to use to be able to protect their system. One of the best tools that a person who is either can use to protect themselves is a firewall on their system. A firewall offers you unprecedented protection from the bad guys online. In the following paragraphs, we will talk about what a firewall is and we will also discuss the difference between software and a hardware firewall.
What exactly is a firewall?
There are many different types of attacks that can happen to your computer when you hook it up online. One of the earliest types of attacks is when people would try to gain access to your computer remotely. They would do this by trying to find a weak port on your system. A weak port means one that is open with no protection. If the black hat hacker did not go in the port manually themselves, they would send in a software attack, such as a worm, to go through it. When professionals saw that this type of attack was becoming more prevalent, they started to create software that would protect the end users from it. That software was known as a firewall and it is what we use to this very day to protect our home and work networks. There are several different types of firewalls out there. Many security companies add their version of a firewall to their software protection suites. But the main thing that you should know besides the brand of a firewall is the difference between software and a hardware firewall.
What is the difference between a software and hardware firewall?
The differences are quite simple really and you can probably tell what they are just by the names. A hardware firewall is a firewall that is either on a dedicated machine just for the firewall or on the home router that you just bought. Hardware firewalls are considered the best when it comes to protecting your network and your system. If you are only going to have one of the two on your system then I would suggest a hardware firewall be active. A software firewall is one that you install on your computer system. It is also very useful and depending on which one that you install, can be very effective. With a software firewall, you may have more configuration control than a hardware firewall. The problem with a software firewall is that some attacks can get past it easier than a hardware firewall. It is easier to trick the software on a user’s machine than on a dedicated firewall machine.
If you want the best protection on your system then we suggest that you have both a hardware and a software firewall installed. That way you will have all of your ports on both the system and the network doubly protected.
Creating a secure computing environment can take some work but it needs to be done. It needs to happen so that you can make sure that you will not be affected by all of the bad guys on the internet. When you are looking for ways to make sure that your computer is safe, the first thing that you will hear is to make sure that your computer has antivirus software installed in it. They will then tell you what kind of antivirus you should have installed and then they will send you on your way. In this day and age that logic is not good enough for a person who is looking to make sure that they are safe. Having antivirus installed on your system is a good first step but it is not the only step that you need. We will take the time to tell you several other steps that you need to take to make sure that your computer is safe when it surfs the internet.
The firewall
The next thing that you should do right after you install the antivirus is to make sure that you have the firewall on your computer set up correctly. Firewall is the thing that is going to stop the intruders from having a look at your local network. If you cannot stop them then all of the secrets that you have on the computer will be exposed. So you need to make sure that your firewall is both set up on the operating system and on the router. This will mean that you have two firewalls protecting your system. One may be enough but two is even better.
The right software
After you have the antivirus and the firewall set up, now you need to take a look at the software that you use on the internet. This includes the browser, phone services such as Skype, instant messengers and any other thing that need the internet to work. You should make sure that there are no security warnings on the software. When it comes to the browser, make sure that it is one of the latest versions of the brand that you are using, especially if you are using internet explorer. If you are using Internet Explorer then there should be no version on your computer earlier than 8. The rest of them are not secure enough to be used as everyday internet devices. If you have to, you might want to think about switching browsers to one of the alternatives out there, Firefox or Chrome.
After all of this is done, you want to make sure that you add some common sense to the pot as well. A lot of the security risk that you will see on your computer will involve mistakes that you make. If you are careful and you have the right software installed then you should be safe on the internet.
If you are buying a new computer then there are many things that you will want to do with it once it is set up. These things that you would want to do are all different depending on your skill level with computers. If you are a person who is new to computers and has never owned one before, then you are probably going to try and get used to the machine as it is now before you do anything. If you are a person that has experience with owning a computer, then you are going to install some programs that you use on a regular basis and uninstall some programs that came with the operating system. But no matter, if you are a new person when it comes to computers or someone who has experience, there are certain things that you need to check for on your new Windows 7 operating system to make sure that it is going to be safe when you use it. In this article we will discuss these settings that you need to check.
The first thing that you need to look at
When you first turn on the computer, the thing you need to look at first is the default programs that are installed on it. Some of these programs are demos and they either offer limited functionality or they will expire in a week or a month. This is especially true for the security products that may come with the computer. Some people when they see that the program is already installed on the computer do not realize that it only works for a limited time and so they are not really protected long term. Make sure that you have an antivirus that is going to work for a long time installed on the system. If that means uninstalling the demo that is on there already and installing a truly free version such as AVG, then that is what you should do.
Make sure that your computer is protected from remote threats
Once you are certain that the software that came installed on your computer works or you have replaced it with a version that does work, your next step is to make sure that your computer is protected from remote threats. You do this by making sure that the firewall that came already installed into the system is running. Some people prefer to download new firewall software from other places but Windows 7 already has one installed in it. When you turn on the system, you need to make sure that the installed firewall is on if you haven’t replaced it already. You can go into the Network Control Panel and it will tell you if it is on or not. Most of the time, it will be on already but there are some cases where it is not.
These are the main two steps that you need to take when you purchase a brand new computer with Windows 7 on it. Windows 7 is a very secure operating system but you need to make sure that you help keep it secure by enabling all of the tools that it needs to stay that way.