Avoiding Hacking

If you have a computer connected to the Internet by broadband, it's not unusual for hackers from all over the world to probe your computer 100 or more times each day. They aren't looking for your computer in particular. They are looking for easy access.

You wouldn't open all the doors and windows to your office, turn on the lights, and invite vandals in 24 hours a day, would you?

If you have a computer connected to the Internet without a firewall, that's essentially what you are doing.

USE A FIREWALL

A firewall is a piece of software or hardware that filters traffic between your computer system and the Internet. Think of it as a kind of combination alarm system and doorman. You can use it to lock all the doors and windows and put a sentry at the main entrance.

Every computer connected to the Internet should have a firewall.

SOFTWARE FIREWALLS

You can use a software version like the free ZoneAlarm www.zonelabs.com

HARDWARE FIREWALLS

But better is a hardware firewall. One device can protect an entire network.

These puts your computers inside the firewall, and the public Internet on the outside. Only the firewall is exposed to Internet hackers, not individual computers. It's like living in a gated community.

They allow also allow port forwarding. Ports are like doors for different services, such as e-mail and Web browsing. There are some 65,000 ports on each Internet address. With port forwarding, you can open up one port for, say e-mail, and keep all others closed, thus limiting exposure.

Hackers often use spoofed packets (or messages) to try to sneak in or launch a "denial of service" attack. The most sophisticated firewalls use "stateful" packet filtering to examine every packet of coming into your network and exclude spoofed packets.

Get a firewall and eliminate the threat of your computer being hacked!