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If you use a computer a lot, you will be familiar with a firewall and how you can configure it manually. Firewall security is important to make sure "bad" things don't come into your computer or network and hack your info.

Firewall Security Keeps the Bad Out and Lets the Good In

Most people have heard of firewalls but a lot of people do not quite understand what they are or what they do. For an average home computer user they may think that having an anti-virus program is all they need to protect their computer. However, additional firewall protection is almost essential today as well.

Anti-virus software may also encompass protection from spy ware and ad ware and may be called something like “Internet Security.” Whether you have the better software package or the bare bones anti-virus software the basic difference between the anti-virus software and a firewall is that often the anti-virus package lets the bad things get onto your computer first. It then detects them and then attempts to delete or kill them. On the other hand, a firewall stops many of the malicious things from entering the computer in the first place.

What does firewall security do?

Along the way, a firewall constantly scans and determines what is proper to allow onto your computer and rejects what is not. Network firewall security works the same way except on a larger scale. Network firewall security may be a software barrier in place between two networks or two parts of a larger network.

The network administrator can configure the firewall security software to accept certain types of transmissions and deny others to the entire network. The firewall security software works by checking the data packets that are sent (usually encrypted) though the network connections.