Firewall Support

The prime function of a firewall software application is to control access to or from a computer for security related concerns. A firewall is a software program, hardware device, or a combo of both that keeps a watch over the information coming through the Internet connection into your PC. The firewall will only allow data in that you asked for. It will also monitor outgoing data of your computer to the Internet. It will only let information out that you say can go out.

Windows firewall is a completely developed firewall application which can be turned on by its own and should be left on if you are not replacing it with another firewall. There is no doubt about efficiency of Windows firewall.

Windows XP's Internet Connect Firewall is really only half a firewall. It only checks incoming information of your PC and doesn't check outgoing data of your computer. Why is this important? If your computer has by mistake become infected with a malicious matter like virus, Trojan, worm, or spyware, your personal information is certainly in danger. Virus will attempt to replicate itself and infect other computers, or even allow hackers to access your computer to do whatever they want.

The only quality of a true firewall is that it will prevent malicious matter from getting out of your PC & inform you about the existing problem so you can clean it up. A firewall may very well be the most important piece of security software on a computer.

A managed firewall ensures the highest level of security for an enterprise network. As signified by its name, 24x7 firewall ensures that your data is secure and protected round the clock.

If you do not have a monitoring system in place then your database might not be running efficiently. You can consider availing help from computer support centers to maintain a competitive edge in managing data by making your database up and running on a 24x7 basis in an effective manner. You can look forward to resources like iYogi technical Services Ltd for the best firewall support services.

Written by Alina wilson

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What is Windows Firewall?

Windows Firewall is a personal firewall which comes bundled with Microsoft’s Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista operating systems. It filters data before it enters your system. Not only does Windows Firewall check incoming information; it takes care of outgoing information as well. A firewall that works with a router program probes every network packet to decide whether to forward it toward its address.

Windows Firewall protects the valuable data stored on your PC in following ways:

• Denying Remote Login.
• Preventing SMTP session hijacking.
• Scanning E-mail bombs that carry viruses and other malware.
• Not allowing suspicious Macros to run on PC.
• Keeping track of Virus, Spams and Trojans.
• Deleting / blocking risk ware.

Windows Firewall ensures an effective security of Microsoft Windows. It also prevents the malicious software from going out of the system followed by giving prompt to clean it. Computer viruses and hackers use open ports of a computer whose firewall security system is disabled. It leads to spread of virus in whole PC. Therefore, a firewall is essential security software on a computer.

Windows Firewall was first released onto Windows XP SP2. All kind of network connection including wired, wireless, VPN, or even FireWire, has the firewall enabled by default. However, there can be some built in exceptions allowing connections from machine on the local network.

Windows Vista has an improved version of the firewall which boasts of addressing concerns around the flexibility of Windows Firewall in a corporate environment.

Installing firewall security system offers an ultimate protection to network against outside intruders. Improper architecture or poor set up of firewall can affect data, thereby hampering your productivity. This encourages a need for to avail firewall support specifically focused on firewall protection.

How a Personal Firewall Helps to Protect Your Home Computer From Hackers

There are two types of firewall available to the home computer user. A hardware firewall is a device which sits between your computer and the internet. At home for example it could reside on a broadband router which is used to share your internet connection with a number of computers. One of the advantages of a hardware firewall is that it can be used to protect more than one computer at a time. For this reason hardware firewalls are deployed in corporate networks. For home users who own just one computer a personal firewall is more commonly used and more cost effective.

A personal firewall is a software application that monitors and can block the flow of data between the internet and your computer. The firewall is a key part of your computer security set up. It prevents hackers from gaining access to your computer using an internet connection.

Hackers gain access to your computer through open ports that are used by your computer to communicate with the internet. The most basic firewall programs, like Windows XP's firewall, monitor and can block "inbound" traffic by closing these ports. If theses ports are closed a hacker cannot access your computer directly via the internet.

More advanced firewall programs like products from ZoneLabs or Symantec also monitor and can block "outbound" traffic. This extra level of security is important and is worth investing in. For example, if malicious software like a Trojan Virus or spyware were installed on your computer without your knowledge the firewall would alert the user when it tried to connect to the internet and prevent it communicating with its host.

A firewall usually works at two basic levels. Firstly, packets of data are analysed based upon IP address and content to see whether they comply with a set of rules which a user can input to. The second level the data is analysed is at the application level. The firewall determines whether an application can send and/or receive data and the port which it should be communicating through.

The firewall "learns" through continuous interaction with the user. It seeks user approval from programs when they first come in to contact with the firewall. Most firewalls also allow the user to allow or block applications through a stored list of program which can be accessed through the firewall's user interface.

There are a number of sites which will help test your firewall's effectiveness. A number of these sites are run by security software vendors so it is recommended you test using an independently run site to double-check any results. One of the best independent test sites is run by The Gibson Research Corporation. They offer a free test called "Shield Up!" which can be found at their website - http://www.grc.com. The test checks a number of well-know and vulnerable ports on your computer and then provides some useful additional information to help improve your security while online.

It is important to remember that the firewall is only part of your computer security and does not negate the need for a good anti virus solution, a spyware removal tool and a degree of caution / common on sense on the type of websites a user visits. For example, the firewall will not scan for viruses or remove them from your computer.

Written by Richard Rogers

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Firewalls Can Help With Your Security Concerns

The worst things to over look each and every time in this competitive age is about your PC Computer Security and if you are not careful with that nasty piece of codes are not going to show any mercy at all and rather thrash you towards any short of crisis once they took a front seat on your computing system.

But taking some of these steps can minimize your risk from virus, malwares, spywares, ad wares, Trojans, worms and from each and every form of infection your computer system can have. They are just viral kind of things once you got them they can give you sleepless nights.

And as per the old saying goes prevention is better than cure so why not act before things get into hands of those malicious codes known as malware. Using a firewall can prevent you from that malicious software’s which are intended to harass your computer integrity. But if your computer system is already got infected somehow, so firewall is not going to work out what next, our answers are there with a good friend of you, your virus removal software’s or anti-spyware software’s.

Here is a brief about firewall that would help you with some of your further security concerns.

Firewall: A Firewall is a shield that acts as a first line of defense when you are there on the web and prevent you from all those unpleasant intrusion to stay safe on internet. A Firewall supervises the web traffic that tries to explore them with you system which may be any of your inbound or outbound traffics.

So on the first go confirm that whatever operating system you have, check that the firewall with your operating system is already switch on. Although with the latest once that is with Microsoft Windows XP Operating System and Microsoft Windows Vista support Operating System they are set by default but that is not same with the Mac Operating System. So, if you have a Mac OS now you know what you have to do right now on a priority level.

How to check the Firewall Setting
Step 1: Open the Control Panel
Step 2: Select Security Center and open Windows Security Center
Step3: Select Windows Firewall option from Manage Security Setting
Step4: Now, select from two of the available radio buttons on the Windows Firewall Form, and For Now On is the right choice. Select "On"
Step5: Click ‘Ok" Button and you are done with setting up your Windows Firewall. Close the Windows Security Center and The Control Panel.

This was one of the simplest thing to can do for your security concern but if you are truly concerned with your security and it really matters a lot and for that if you can put something financially there are third party commercial software available.

Note:- If you are trying to install your third party software don’t forget to switch off that Microsoft Firewall as they may conflict’s with your third part software. To do so use the steps stated above and just select off on the place of step 4
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Written by James Burns

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Firewalls Hardware vs. Software for Home Users

We should all understand the need for a firewall for our home network. Firewalls help protect our computers from viruses, worms, Trojans, & hackers. What we may not think about is the difference between hardware firewalls and software firewalls. Here are some examples of software firewalls: Windows XP firewall, Zone Alarm, Norton Internet Security, Kerio Firewall, Check Point, and there are many others. Now here are some examples of (consumer grade) hardware firewalls: Linksys, D-link, Netgear, Iogear, Sonicwall, Netscreen, and many others. The cost of a home firewall can vary but the estimated cost are anywhere from $30 - $150 USD for ether a hardware or software firewall. So lets now take a closer look at the differences between the too.

Software Firewalls

The idea behind a software firewall is to protect your computer from harm by checking incoming and outgoing traffic for known Malware. Normally you have a training process to setup the software firewall by "burning it in". The software firewall will alert you to all kinds of traffic you may or may not know that is coming and going from your computer to the internet. It will probably ask you if you want to let this traffic though. Once you get past the training phase you are setup and ready to surf. Some of the user advantages for a software firewall are how easy setup is and updates are similar to antivirus software. Also a lot of software firewalls are built into antivirus programs so you night already have one running now. Some of the down sides to this kind of firewall are that the software vendors may not tell you about vulnerabilities and there are always going to be chances that without updates your computer can still be at risk. Just keep in mind that you should treat your software firewall the same as your antivirus products and keep it updated.

Hardware Firewalls

Hardware firewalls are normally safer because they are separate devices than your computer and any dangerous traffic get stopped before it hits your computer. Also if for some reason your network gets attacked your firewall takes the burden of the attack and not you're PC. Other pro's to the hardware firewall is that you can use it to protect all the computers on your network and this can save money from not having to load the software on all your computers. Hardware firewalls are also normally better because they are made to just protect your network and only serve this proposes unlike software firewalls that are just programs to run on your computer and can be disabled from other software and Malware.

Final Review

Let's now go over what we have covered and discussed in this article. Software firewalls are great and can help protect your PC. Keep in mind software firewalls are only as good as there last update. Hardware firewalls provide awesome protection and can as protect the whole network. The best thing to do is use both hardware & Software firewalls if you can. We recommend using the hardware firewall to protect the network and also using the software firewall to protect the PCs. Keep in mind that most of your antivirus software comes with some kind of software firewall protection and Windows XP (Home & Pro) has a software firewall option. There are also free software firewalls you can download from the internet. No matter how you chose to protect your network just use some kind of firewall and always use antivirus software.

Brian Wilson

CCNA, CSE, CCAI, MCP, Network+

Slimjim100@gmail.com

[http://www.middlegeorgia.org]

http://www.middlegeorgia.info

Written by Brian Wilson

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Wilson

Netscreen Remote Dial-UP VPN with AD Radius Authentication and route based VPN / tunnel interface

The following procedure explains how to set up a Juniper ScreenOS based firewall to accept Netscreen Remote Client VPN connections and authenticate users using Active Directory (Radius via Windows 2003 IAS or Windows 2008 NPS).

We’ll assume that all traffic to from the client to the 192.68.0.0/16 networks needs to pass via the client VPN tunnel. Clients will use dynamic IP addresses (either public or behind a nat router that is capable of handling IPSec passthrough)

The VPN connection must use the following encryption and hashing parameters and PSK:

* Phase 1 : aes-128, sha-1, DH Group2, PSK : This1sNot4GoodPSK3y
* Phase 2 : aes-128, sha-1, replay protection, PFS with DH Group2

Network Layout



The Juniper firewall has 3 zones:

1. Public (eth2, connected to the internet, static public IP),
2. LAN (eth1, connected to the LAN) and
3. A separate zone called VPNBuffer, not attached to any interface.

* This is just an empty zone, a placeholder, so we can create proper policies (instead of defining policies from Public to LAN, we will be able to use policies from VPNBuffer to LAN, thus separating the internet-to-lan traffic policies from the vpn-to-lan policies. It just looks better…)
* All interfaces are in route mode.

In the LAN network, there is a Domain Controller at 192.168.0.6, which will be configured as IAS (Radius) server. (The IAS does not need to be a DC, just a domain member will do)

This is what needs to be done

* Juniper : Configure an auth server (Radius)
* Windows : Set up Radius
* IAS on Windows 2003 or
* NPS on Windows 2008
* Juniper : Define IP Pool / Subnet
* Juniper : Create tunnel interface
* Juniper : Set up routing
* Juniper : Define IKE user/group and External Group for XAuth (Radius)
* Juniper : Set XAuth defaults
* Juniper : Configure Phase 1
* Juniper : Configure Phase 2
* Juniper : Configure policies
* Client : Configure Netscreen Remote
* Client : Connect .

Written by Zifra Permana

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More Information on Firewalls

It seems nowadays if you are not online, you don't exist. It really does not matter what type of company you run, you should have an online presence to let
your prospects and clients know about your company and services. When you decide to take the leap onto the Internet there are some precautions you should
take. I have friends who say all the time, I really have nothing to hide or worry about. This may be true, but malicious users like to deface websites.Which
can ruin you and your businesses reputation.

This is a paper about firewalls protecting your company from outside threats and unauthorized access.

A firewall is a great start. Firewalls can be both hardware and software based. There are many different firewall vendors some of the bigger names are Cisco,
Symantec, and Checkpoint. The difficult part is configuring the firewall. This is where many intruders bypass security, because the firewall is poorly
configured.

I would like to mention that there are many Open Source programs and operating systems that offer great firewall software. I personally believe that OpenBSD
has one of the most secure operating systems and firewall configurations if done right. FreeBSD also has firewall software, it is called IPTABLES.IPTABLES
offers packet filtering, NAT and you can even change packets in Linux. I have to say you can do anything you want in Linux, because the source code is right
there. It's a beautiful thing. Linux also uses this; you can build a firewall with the old system sitting in your garage and two Linux compatible network
cards.Linux can be hardened, this means to make the operating system more secure. I like the tool Bastille Linux its is developed by Jeff Beale.
To really get a grasp on firewalls you need to understand TCP/IP and allot of different protocols to know if you should allow or deny them into your network.
IP addresses identify hosts on the Internet they look like this 127.214.234.54. Firewalls can block IP addresses, ports, protocols and even keywords that
come into packets. Hackers that want into you network have many different tools at their disposal to try to bypass firewalls. One common attack is known as
Denial Of Service or DOS attacks. The attacker simply floods your network, firewalls with so many packets that it cannot handle them and sometimes crashes.
Firewalls are available with DOS filtering to keep these attacks low, and start dropping packets.

Firewalls do not protect you from internal threats such as employees bringing in viruses from home. Or remote users using VPN's (virtual Private Networks)
bypassing your firewall. Think about if you bring your son to work and he downloads music on your fast company internet connection only to introduce your
corporate network with a worm or even worst a Trojan horse. Service ports that are open to the public such as Port 80 HTTP, have know vulnerabilities on the
Internet. FTP has many vulnerabilities as well.

Are there different types of firewalls?

Yes. There are hardware and software firewalls. You might be even using Zone Alarm or Black Ice Defender. These are software based firewalls, the more I
study firewall technology I realize that everything truly is a software firewall. A computer is nothing without software to tell it what to do.

Packet Filters

Packet Filters look at source and destination addresses. This is where firewall rule sets come in to play. The firewall administrator must determine which
source and destination ports and addresses to allow or deny. The security administrator needs to keep up to date with alerts on vulnerabilities as new holes
are found and created daily. A technique known as spoofing can sometimes fool firewalls but making it appear that a packet is coming from inside the protected
network when in fact it is an attacker changing the source address.

Application Gateways

Application Gateways are like errand boys. You request a file and the application gateway grabs it for you.This is great for logging connections, and setting
up authentication as well.

Statefull Packet Inspection

Statefull Packet Inspection is a technique used by Cisco PIX firewalls and Checkpoint Firewalls these firewalls look at the data coming across the network.It
can also authenticate connections, users can usually not notice that the firewall is in place. Allot of firewalls now allow you to configure VPN's which is
awesome if you have remote workers and satellite offices and need to transfer data securely.

Intrusion Detection is also something to consider, I like SNORT. SNORT can detect known attacks against your system and does a great job at logging them if
set up correctly. There are thousands of different software and hardware solutions you can purchase for you home or network. I happen to like Open Source,
because I like learning and knowledge and the Open Source community has taught me more than the corporate world ever will. A book I would like to recommend
that is great for learning firewalls is called simply enough Building Internet Firewalls, it is by O'reilly. That is all for now. One last tip, backup, backup, backup.

Benjamin Hargis CEO MCP Phuture Networks [http://www.phuturenetworks.com] [http://www.computersecurityadvice.com] Email ceo@phuturenetworks.com

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Written by Benjamin Hargis