Firewalls: Myths & Truths

There are a lot of myths and facts that most non-technical oriented people get wrong about how exactly viruses work, what they do, and how to protect yourself from them. So in this article, we are going to try and dispel a few of these falsehoods to give you a better understanding of what you’re up against in the internet wild.

We will try to address one of the most common misconceptions I see when speaking to clients about their infected computers; the Firewall. It seems to be widely believed that firewall software is some sort of blanket protection against being infected, when in actuality, nothing could be further from the truth.

Firewall software does NOT and never will protect you from a virus. To put it in a more easy to understand way, you can think of a Firewall as more of a lock on your door. Viruses themselves are simply packages in the form of files that can be delivered to your computer unsolicited. A locked door isn’t going to stop a package from being delivered to your mailbox; it will simply stop the person delivering the package from entering your home.

What a Firewall actually does, is blocks communication to your computer from an outside source, by denying access to your home computer. Viruses however, are very rarely delivered to a home computer in this way. They are usually embedded in websites or sent in emails to cleverly trick you into opening the package. Firewalls stop people from getting to your computer, but if you actively go out to find something and accidentally access a virus, no Firewall in the world is going to assist you.

Another thing to keep in mind with software Firewalls, is that in most homes, they cause more issues then they solve. If you, like many other people out there, have a router in your home, there is absolutely no need for you to also have a Firewall. Why? Well because your router IS a Firewall in itself. Almost all routers these days have built in Firewall capabilities that protect your home network very efficiently from outside attacks without any inherent risks to your system security at all.

To make matters worse, having a Firewall on your home computer AND a router with a Firewall built into it can actually cause more problems than it solves. The two layers of security will make communication from your computer to the internet more difficult, and can result in lower connection speeds, and the inability to access certain types of services on the internet.

Now, there are those out there that connect their desktop computers directly to their internet modem. While this is an unsafe practice, this is the type of situation that a software Firewall can come in handy, but only if properly configured and setup. If you’re this type of person we strongly suggest having professionals like us do this for you.

Hopefully this helps make things a little clearer for everyone out there, stay tuned here for the next article where I will discuss the most common ways that viruses spread.