The Security Mentor

The first question is, do you need a firewall at all. The answer is yes.

The second question is whether to get a firewall program that runs on your computer, or to get a firewall box that sits on its own. The short answer is that getting both is a good use of money, but if you get only one I recommend the firewall box.

There are three wonderful things about a firewall box (also called "firewall appliance" or "hardware firewall"):

• It protects all your computers, not just one
  
• It's safe from evil software that can infect your PC
  
• It's not very smart
  

That last sounds bad but a security consultant sees it as good. Dumb means simple, and simple means there's less to go wrong. The biggest advantage is that today's storm of viruses and spyware won't affect them.

A firewall program running on your computer shines in blocking outgoing activity. Sound strange? It's important because of spyware that tries to send data from your computer and because of worms that call home to ask their creators what they should do next. A firewall program can also do some of the work of a firewall box.

Almost all the firewall boxes are good choices. Even the cheapest "connection sharing" boxes provide important protection for basic home use.

Firewall programs are more complicated to evaluate but you can confidently pick Zone Alarm. There's splendid word of mouth in the security community about Kerio. Like Zone Alarm, Kerio has a basic version which is free for home and personal use.

You may already have a firewall program built in to your operating system. Mac OS X and Windows XP both have firewall software. Just remember to turn it on.