What Is a Firewall?

We all heard about firewall at some point of time, what are they used for ? Do they stop viruses?

Well actually, there is a great chance that you are now using a firewall,  if  your are running a modern OS on your computer, there is be one built in, or else your security suite will have a firewall.

But what is this firewall for? Keep reading for reasons why you do, need it.

What Is a Firewall?

Lets start it with what a firewall actually is. You should understand that there are no sparks, no flames, no fuel of any kind of that stuff involved,

A firewall is a shield or barrier which is intended to protect your PC, phone or tablet from data-based malware dangers that exist everywhere on the Internet. 

Data is usually exchanged between your computer and servers and routers in cyberspace while you are using internet, and the purpose of firewalls is to monitor this data (sent in packets) and check if they are safe or not.

Firewalls do this by establishing whether the packets meet the rules that have been set up. Depending on on these rules, packets of data are rejected or accepted.

Most operating systems (both desktop and mobile) will have a basic built-in firewall, but the best results can be seen by using a dedicated firewall application. Here are 5 reasons why you should use  a Firewall.

1. A Firewall Can Protect Your Computer From Unauthorized Remote Access

The worst thing that can happen to a computer user is someone attempting to take control of it remotely. Seeing mouse of your PC move around your monitor as a remote intruder usurps your digital world, assuming control of your personal data, is petrifying.

With a well configured firewall (and a modern OS) you will have remote desktop access disabled, and thus preventing hackers from taking charge of your computer.

2. Firewalls Can Block Messages Linking to Unwanted Content

There are still people out there running older versions of Windows(i mean very old like Windows XP). Worse part is that they are using XP without any firewall, and the built-in firewall is not enabled by default.

You read that right. The Internet has a lot of malware traversing the cyberspace, waiting to pounce on the unprotected PCs. Even though your ISP can help prevent this, it is unlikely that they will be able to in a long run.

3. Firewalls Make Online Gaming Safer

In the history of video games, online gaming is one of the most significant development and it it also a potential security risk. Many kinds of malware has been developed which targets online gamers, who use an unsecured or compromised game servers.

4. You Can Block Unsuitable Content With a Firewall

So far, we have been talking mainly about blocking hackers and other types of remote access threats like  malware, but firewalls are capable of more than just that. Apart from protecting you from ransomware directories, firewall applications also have an option to block particular online locations.

5. Firewalls Can Be Hardware or Software

As we said above, firewalls don not necessarily have to be just software. Hardware firewalls are also found in most homes, built into your router. You can access these firewalls by using the administrative credentials for the router, and once you’ve signed in you should be able to review the options and change them if necessary.

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