Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Computer Fitness blog!

Keeping your data safe and secure is a necessity in any business. Clients don’t want their private information being leaked all over the world, and who can blame them? We all want to make sure our privacy is protected at work and at home. Well, there are a lot of ways to ensure that you remain safe on the web. Today, we’re going to talk about one of them: Firewalls.

Picture a wall in your head. Now cover it in fire. That’s effective imagery, right? You wouldn’t be able to go anywhere near it. That’s the aim of firewalls on computers. They act as barriers to prevent people from just coming in and getting what they want. They are meant to establish lines so thick that nothing can penetrate them.

Getting a firewall is easy. All Windows and Mac operating systems have them built- in. They are also usually enabled by default. This is good because it keeps you from having to configure this yourself. They automatically block most ports you won’t use, and keep open ones that you will. A good example is port 80, which is the default for web browsing. That will be open, while others will not.

There are other forms of firewalls you can employ, and all have varying degrees of strength and customizability. For a home user, any good Anti-Virus bundle will include a more powerful firewall that is better equipped to handle your PC’s security.

-Josh
Computer Fitness