We all know about firewalls protecting your network from outside attacks, but what can you do when those pesky users keep taking their computers outside your network? And what if the attack isn't coming from the outside at all?
The corporate network might be reasonably secure, layered behind its firewall, traffic analysis modules, and virus defence, but what about laptops out in the field connected through dialup or broadband connections? What about protection from other people on the inside of your network who might have agendas of their own?
Ideally, desktop firewalls provide two basic functions. They protect your system from unsolicited packets coming in from the Internet, and they offer control over the packets going out. There are several ways to go about setting a security policy, but the safest is to simply block everything and then let what needs to pass through, pass through. This will take some learning to work out what needs to go through, but many of these software packages simplify the task. The trick is to make tiny pinprick holes in your firewall, not huge doorways with a welcome mat on the outside.
In this roundup we looked at some of the Desktop Firewall packages that you can install directly onto a Windows PC to keep the outside world where it belongs—outside. These programs are designed to watch the traffic coming in, and also to insulate you from attacks by passing each packet through a filter to decide weather it should be sent through to the operating system or not.
4%
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central silent installs?? was in ice cap but to my knowledge not yet wriitten into SP!!