Whats it all mean?

[digidude]

Reading through some of these messages ive seen things about firewalls, poeple having their ports probed <img src="graemlins/blue.gif" border="0" alt="[blue]" /> , being hacked and allsorts. Whats it all mean and most of all, am i safe. Can anyone suggest any reading material so i can get a bit clued up.

Cheers

 

[speccy]

Every time you go on the net you are actually in fact leaving a back door open. Certain types of people will try to take advantage of this just as if it were the back door to your home. In theory, a firewall puts up a barrier against this doorway but is also able to block that door way in both directions giving you the oportunity to allow what traffic is allowed in or out. This is done when you configure a rule as if for example when using Outlook express. You have both incoming mails and outgoing mails. To my knowledge there is no 100% firewall but every little helps. It is possible to have several firewalls running at once if this makes you feel more at ease. I dare say that if you visit <a href="http://www.symantec.com" target="_blank">www.symantec.com</a> and look for firewalls you may become more enlightened.

 

[digidude]

MY GOD! That epened my eyes a bit, im downloading as i type. I followed a link in another thead to have my ports probed, wasnt as much fun as i thought, but it said i had allsorts open.

Cheers for the help

digidude