Free Personal Firewall

Wednesday, February 06, 2002

Do you sometimes get that uncomfortable feeling that someone is trying to access your machine whenever you’re on the Internet? Well, the bad news is that the feeling could be right. The good thing is that there’s personal firewalls, both free and commercial, that can protect your machine from such snoopers. ZoneAlarm, a popular personal firewall, can be freely downloaded from the Internet, and is pretty simple to install and configure. The interface is divided into five panels. Let’s look at the recommended settings for each panel.

Alerts panel
Log alerts to text file: Yes
Show the alert popup window: Yes

Lock panel
Automatic lock: Enable
Engage ... lock after: 10 minutes

Pass lock programs: If you use software like e-mail clients that need to access the Net constantly

Security panel
Internet zone: High security
Local zone: High security
Internet servers blocked: Yes
Local servers blocked: Yes
Mailsafe enabled: Yes

Programs panel
As a rule, don’t give server permissions to any application. If required, grant server privileges only when the app asks for it. Only allow familiar apps, e-mail clients for example, to connect to the Internet without asking.

Configure panel
On top during Internet activity: No
Load ZoneAlarm at startup: Yes
Check for updates automatically: Yes

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