Paul Tevis writes:

Here are some handy firewalls you might want to choose for your computer.

McAfee Firewall Plus- I like this firewall a lot! It does what it needs to and more. If you’d like to track where someone was hacking onto your computer from, just click trace event. It will than show you on a map where the hacker is located. Than if you’d like you can block there IP adress. If you really need a firewall, I highly recommend this firewall.

Norton Firewall- Here is another firewall. I don’t really recommend this firewall due to the problems with Norton Firewall 2004. There were lots of bugs in it, and it blocked you from the internet a lot of the times even though it says it is allowing it to access the network. So, I dont’ really recommend this, but go ahead and take your chance.

Sygate Firewall- This is a pretty nice firewall, it’s free and easy to use. I never really had any problems with it when I had it. It’s easy if you are new at using a firewall.

Also, if you’d like learn more about anti-viruses, go check out my show, http://pepsipaul.xwiki.com

Leo notes: Software firewalls can cause connectivity issues that are difficult to diagnose. I do not recommend the McAfee or Norton products - I’ve found they’re more likely to cause problems than most. A broadband router is more than adequate protection for most users, and is much less likely to cause problems. If you must use a software firewall, I recommend the free Sygate Personal Firewall.

Questions: Please ask any questions you might have here.

Q I have a Linksys Etherfast 4-Port Router that has built-in NAT firewall. I have a standalone computer with DSL connection. Will the built-in NAT-Firewall provide me with good protection or will I have to get a Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) type router instead? - Andy

Believe it or not any NAT router (and that includes virtually all broadband routers sold today) is a stateful inspection router. That’s what NAT does: it looks at incoming packets and discards those that weren’t requested. Even if it doesn’t say it on the box, your broadband router is a high quality stateful inspection firewall. -Leo