4. Firewalls Protect

Before taking any action on your system, please read (and print) these instructions completely. There are sometimes special notes or warnings that might apply to your situation. Proceed at your own risk.

Isn’t it nice to have a clean system again? You’d probably like to keep it that way, right? That means that you need to take a few steps to help fortify your computer.

The most effective way to ensure that you never get hit by malware, including viruses and worms, is to disconnect it from all networks and never put a disk into it. Keep it as tightly sealed as a “clean room” at NASA. Obviously the effectiveness of this computer will be reduced, but you would have a very secure system.

What if instead of disconnecting your computer completely, you hire a digital security guard to check everyone’s ID before they enter your computer? If you hire a good enough doorman, you’ll have nearly as good security as if your computer were disconnected. In computer terms, that “doorman” or “security guard” is called a firewall. Just as there are better guards and less effective ones, there are different types of firewalls. Appendix C explains some of the basic differences.

Setting up a Firewall

WARNING – If you are on a business network and you install a personal firewall, you may render your computer unable to connect to anything in the network, as well as upset your network administrator. Personal firewalls that are designed for home computers generally do not “play nicely” with more sophisticated networks. Talk to your network admin before installing any firewalls inside a business network.

Probably the best personal firewall available for home users is Zone Alarm, which comes in both a free version and in a professional version (which sometimes is bundled with their anti-malware software). They also offer an even more advanced version that is acceptable for use within some business networks if properly configured.

BlackICE Defender and Norton Personal Firewall are two others with good results (though slightly less impressive in effectiveness). Many antivirus manufacturers also offer personal firewall software. Just be sure that it is certified as being effective, otherwise you are probably buying a lemon.

When it comes to perimeter defenses, buy the best you can afford that comes with software you (or someone you know) can configure. This is a case where you get what you pay for, with the caveat that if you don’t know how to configure it, it’s not going to do you any good at all. The lower the price (within reason), usually the simpler it is to configure. If your cable or DSL provider is good, they will recognize the added benefits of a perimeter firewall, and they may even offer to lease or sell you one as an optional accessory with your service.

Test Your Defenses

Once you have all those programs installed, visit the Gibson Research Corporation and test your new firewall and software for vulnerabilities. While there, pick up a few more helpful utilities to fortify your system, like DCOMbobulator, Shoot the Messenger , XPdite, UnPlug n’ Pray, SocketToMe & SocketLock, and LeakTest. There is a lot of technical information behind each utility, but you don’t need to know it to use it; just download the utility, run it, and have it fix any problems it finds. A few people on corporate networks may find a few of these utilities cause hiccups with your network services, but all the utilities include a simple “undo” feature.

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