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Do I need both anti-virus and a firewall?
By Dennis Brooks
The answer to that question is an emphatic YES. They are both security devices that protect your computer while you are on the internet, but they do different jobs. A firewall protects your computer from invasion by blocking the ports that allow access to your computer, but allows traffic to pass through from it. Anti Virus software protects your computer by stopping the activity of viruses or malware programs when they have got into it, you may well have allowed them onto your computer by opening an infected email or visiting a website that has asked you to download an infected program. Of course you wouldn't deliberately allow something into your computer so they are usually disguised as something you do want. There are basically 2 types of firewall, software and hardware. A software firewall is a program you run on your computer that blocks all the ports for you, it then checks the programs on your computer to see which ports it needs to open to allow these programs to run. A hardware firewall is a separate device that is installed between your computer and your modem. This then physically stops anything getting to your computer from outside unless you have allowed it, normally it has certain common ports open to allow access that is needed.
If you are using a router to connect to the internet, most of the modern ones have firewalls built into them, so you don't need an extra device. Anti virus software is installed on your computer and is constantly checking the system for unexpected activity, if it sees some it checks it out, if it is suspicious it will warn you and you will get the option to delete it or put it into quarantine. This is just a very basic overview but as I said at the beginning, to make sure your computer is as safe as you can make it you need both a firewall and anti-virus software installed on your system. |
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