What Are Firewalls and Do I Really Need One?
by Brian McConnell Security is one of the greatest concerns expressed by businesses which are connecting their internal Local Area Networks (LANs) to the internet. The internet is a global network of networks, and because of its underlying design, is inherently insecure. Data is often sent across the network as clear text (i.e., is not encrypted or scrambled). It is also easy to impersonate someone else while you are online. While there is presently a great deal of paranoia about internet security, the good news is that there are some very good tools available for securing your network against unauthorized intrusion. This tutorial focuses on the subject of firewalls, and is aimed at end users who are relatively new to the internet. A firewall is a device or software application which serves as a flexible barrier between the computers on your internal network and the outside world (i.e., the internet). Firewalls apply a set of rules to decide who gets to connect to which machines and to
