Tough Love, Part 2 | Feature

Welcome back readers – please note that Jiggy the Geek knows how tough he was on you last month, forcing you to first prepare your PC properly before the Geek would help you repair all your PC problems, answer all your computing questions, and in general, place you in a state of virtual PC nirvana.

So by now you should all have an operating system that's up to date (all critical updates downloaded and applied) and you should have the current virus protection definitions loaded on your machine. Right? Don't understand that last sentence at all? Well then, you will have to go back to December issue of WAVE and start over…and believe me, I know it's tough, but its love.

Okay, so now you are protected from the worst, and you are thinking you are ready to be placed in PC heaven with the help of the Geek, right? Wrong. Sorry, there is more preliminary training needed O' Young One. So before we can move on to topics like performance tuning, better application usage, and system tweaking, we must make sure that our computer's butts are fully protected, and will not allow any intruders in the back door, so to speak.

What more you cry!?! What else can I possibly do now that the operating system is safe and all my files and emails are protected from viral infections? Take heart student of the silicon chips - not much - you are almost to the first stage within the enlightened computer realm, the one that exists behind a firewall.

What the heck is that? To put it simply, a firewall is a software or hardware barrier that protects networked computers from intentional hostile intrusion that could compromise confidentiality or result in data corruption or denial of service. In plain English and not Geekease, that means that a firewall will prevent a hacker (a very bad person) on the internet from doing very bad things to you and your computer while you are online.

Now it's not my intention to scare you jedi-knights in waiting, but while updates to your operating system prevent an internet hacker from erasing your hard drive, and virus protection keeps you safe from opening an infected email that will then erase your hard drive, nothing is inherently installed on your computer that will prevent a hacker from stealing your passwords, bank account statements, and any other personal information that you have stored there. A correctly installed firewall will do all of this for you and more: a firewall will prevent a hacker from using your computer while it's online for illegal activities, or to store files not your own or install programs on your pc that could wind up erasing your hard drive anyway.

While firewalls are a must for cybershop owners or anyone else connected to the internet for long periods of time during the day, it will also provide a degree of safety for the casual home user who dials into the internet using a modem. This is why Jiggy the Geek is stressing this point here today – he loves you and wants you to be happy. Firewalls "hide" your presence on the internet, so you can't become a target. This is called Stealth mode, and I highly recommend this mode of operation at all times. So study Figure 1. Hardware and Software Firewalls in Action; it will show (in a single picture) how firewalls work.

Figure 1. Hardware and Software Firewalls in Action
The firewall prevents hackers from using what we geeks call "open ports" on your pc for their own gain. The firewall will monitor those ports and allow only what you want going in and out of your PC over the internet. Firewalls also come with features like Spyware protection (little programs that can get installed on your PC without you knowing it, and that track your movement on the internet) as well as Pop-up Blockers (prevents those annoying pop-up windows usually selling Viagra or worse). For a non-geekie, setting up this kind of software can be a chore, but those packages listed in the chart above are fairly simple to use and install. Just go with the defaults if you are unsure what to do. They are available as downloads on the internet and on many of the CDs found on New Road. ZoneAlarm is free to use, as is the firewall included with the Microsoft XP operating system (but must be activated first, see details below). The others are free to try but between 30-40 US$ to buy. As with operating systems and virus protection softwares, the Geek recommends purchasing from the manufacturer direct; as in this case, bootleg copies may be harmful to your PC health.

But if you are a user of Windows XP Home or XP Professional, then you are in luck. The folks at Microsoft decided to give you all a break, and include a rudimentary firewall with your new operating system. To activate it, you must do this, assuming you are using a dial-up connection to the internet:
1. Click Start, Control Panel, Network Connections.
2. Right mouse click the dial-up connection you use to dial to the internet from the list of connections. Select Properties.
3. Go to the Advanced tab, and check the box Internet Connection Firewall.
4. Also, the Geek recommends reading the help file associated with this feature by clicking Learn More About Internet Connection Firewall.
Note: you must do this for each and every connection used to connect to the internet; but most of us just have the one. Your Advanced tab (s) should now look something like this shown in XP Dialog Box for all Internet Connections.

XP Dialog Box for all Internet Connections
While the free firewall provided by Microsoft is not as full-featured as the others, for example, the Geek uses Armor2net, which also provides Spyware protection and a Pop-up blocker, Internet Connection Firewall is better than nothing, and if you are a Win XP user then there is no excuse not to turn it on.
TIP FOR WIN XP USERS
After turning on your firewall, open the file found at C:WINDOWSpfirewall.log to see what's going on with your open ports while you are connected.

Okay my young Obie-Ones, with that task on hand, please come back next month and be behind a firewall, and then we will get on to more productive matters, like improving your internet performance, so you can surf faster and freer than ever before. May the force be with you.

Do you have a computer problem, comment, or suggestion for the Geek? Send here: geek@wavemag.com.np