A firewall is software or hardware that checks information passing to and from the Internet or your network, and then either blocks it or allows it to pass through to or from your computer, depending on your firewall settings. Although the Windows Firewall has become more robust which each new version of Windows, it is turned on by default, so in most cases, there isn’t much, if anything to set up.
Once enabled, the Windows Firewall can help prevent hackers or malicious software (such as worms) from gaining access to your computer through a network or the Internet. Even if you think there’s nothing on your computer that would interest anyone, a worm could completely disable your computer, or someone could use your computer to help spread worms or viruses to other computers without your knowledge. Just know that a firewall isn’t the same thing as an antivirus program. For more protection, you need a multi-layered approach with not only a firewall, but antivirus and anti-spyware protection as well.
Note: I’ll be using Windows 7 to demonstrate, but the theory is the same for most all firewalls, they just have a different look and feel is all.
For best results, view the VIDEO above in “Full Screen”.
Use one of the online scanners below to check the effectiveness of your firewall protection with the free firewall testers below:
Free Firewall Test and Port Scan – Online
Gibson Research Corporation – ShieldsUP!: The Internet’s quickest, most popular, reliable and trusted, free Internet security checkup and information service. And now in its Port Authority Edition, it’s also the most powerful and complete. Check your system here, and begin learning about using the Internet safely.
PC Flank: Advanced Port Scanner: The Advanced Port Scanner will test your system for open ports that can be used in attacks on your computer. You can select which scanning technique will be used during the test TCP connect scanning (standard) or TCP SYN scanning. You can also select what ports of your system you want to scan: desired ports or range of ports, typical vulnerable and Trojan ports, 20 random ports or All ports
HackerWatch Test Your Firewall: Our server is ready to send traffic to your computer. You may select either of two methods. If you would like to simply generate some event traffic on your computer to test the event notification dialog and see some events in the log choose the simple probe. If you would like the server to check a list of common ports on your computer to determine if it is able to obtain a connection to them use the port scan.
Hackerwhacker Firewall Tester, Free Security Scan – This test will tell you if you have some very common vulnerabilities. You should run this test every few days OR after installing a new piece of software to make sure no security holes have crept in.
Free Port Scan – Free Server/Firewall Test – SecurityMetrics – Offers Home Office/Personal Firewall Test For home users and Business Server/Firewall Test For Webmasters, Network Administrators, and Executives – test up to three servers.
BufferZone – Security Test – This test simulates an internet download similar to what any users may perform and will attempt to prove that none of your security systems will alert or identify our intrusion attempt. As you run the .exe file it will launch your calculator and scan your documents’ names. We will then place your document names on our server and provide you with a link so that you can see what files we accessed.
SpeedGuide.net Security Scan – a comprehensive remote port scanner that audits a number of commonly used ports on your system in order to detect potenital security vulnerabilities. Many of those ports are used by servers, sharing services, trojans/backdoors, worms, as well as crackers trying to break into your system, or obtain information about it. The SG Security Scanner performs real-world attacks and analysis, providing information about the ports it finds open (if any), in order to help secure and better understand the potenital vulnerabilities of your network.
SafeCenter | Online Anti-Hacker Scan – Anti-Hacker System, since it started in August 2002, has run over 32,000 scans on individual machines. Only 3% of those machines received a perfect score. 97% of them had one or more possible weaknesses, some had multiple weaknesses, These included unneeded network services, public machine names or usernames, guest accounts, routers with weak configuration protection, printers visible for anyone to use and more… Are you still sure?
CheckIt Firewall Test – These scans test your systems vulnerability by scanning for common security holes in your operating system.
Test My PC Security – Will your security software prevent your confidential data from being transmitted to a hacker? Will it stop a virus from corrupting or destroying your important documents? Can you trust it to halt a key-logging program from recording and broadcasting every keyboard stroke you make? Test My PC Security has a wide range of downloadable firewall leak and HIPS tests so you can find out just how good your security software is.
Online Port Scan | Port Scanning | Port Scanner | Port Checker – Use this tool to scan individual ports to determine if the device is listening on that port.