The cure: Use a firewall program or device.

A firewall is a software program or hardware device which blocks remote access to your computer. It does this by closing all ports to data unless the communication is initiated from inside the firewall first. So you could, for example, surf this page without problems through a firewall since your computer sends the request for data to our web server first.

The firewall would note the Internet address that your request was sent to, and allow return communications from that specific address back through the firewall. However, anyone trying to scan a range of IP addresses for vulnerable computers would turn up a blank for your address, since the firewall blocks all unsolicited communication from the Internet.

Almost all home Internet sharing devices include firewalls, so if you are using a router to share your Internet connection within your home, you are likely already protected. Otherwise you need to use a software firewall. Windows XP comes included with one, though you need to activate it. Several free third-party software firewalls are also available, most notably Zone Lab's Zonealarm.

To activate the Windows XP firewall go to 'start/control panel/network and Internet connections/network connections' then right click on your Internet connection and select 'properties'.

Go to the 'advanced' tab and check the 'internet connection firewall' box.

The windows XP firewall is now active and will block most non-requested data from entering your system.See PCSTATS Beginner's guide to Firewalls and Internet security for more details on configuring the XP firewall.

To check this, go to 'start\control panel\windows firewall' and ensure that the firewall is set to the 'on (recommended)' position. The 'windows firewall' icon in control panel is only available to Service Pack 2 users, so if it's not there, simply follow the directions given in the last paragraphs. For more information about the changes to Windows XP made by Service Pack 2, see PCSTATS article on WinXP-SP2 right here.

< Previous Page

© 2010 PCSTATS.com Please respect the time and effort that went into creating each PCSTATS Beginners Guide, do not illegally copy. Thank you.

Next Page >

Toss Some Change into The Tip Jar For less than the cost of a latté you can let the hardworking staff who write and maintain the GUIDES at PCSTATS know that we've helped you out of a jam, or dished out a bit of great tech advice. Toss in $3 bucks, or whatever spare change you like.

Pg 1.  Beginners Guides: Ten Steps to a Secure PC  Pg 2.  The Cure to Step 1.  Pg 3.  — The Cure to Step 2.  Pg 4.  Step 2 Con't  Pg 5.  Step 3  Pg 6.  The Cure to Step 4  Pg 7.  Step 5  Pg 8.  Step 6.  Pg 9.  The cure to Step 8  Pg 10.  Step 9  Pg 11.  Step 10 SEARCH PCSTATS NEW - TRY IT OUT! Use the power of Google to search all of PCSTATS and the PCSTATS Forums. Tell us what you think of this new feature - FEEDBACK?