Firewall or Anti-Virus?ByRaymond D. Matkowsky
Over the past several months I’ve made clear that my online computer protection preference is a multilayered system that consists of both an anti-virus and several firewalls. A short time ago my anti-virus, for an unknown reason, went out. When I did get it back up, no infections were found. That is the power of a multilayered system. Using my protocols, I have managed to keep my system clean of malware for many years.
A firewall acts as a barrier between trusted and untrusted elements travelling the internet and your system. It is a digital gatekeeper between the two. The core function of an anti-virus is to clean your system after it already has been infected. Each machine connected to your system needs anti-virus as the last hurdle. Some anti-viruses also have their own firewalls to block known signatures before they get into any individual computer. You need both.
As mentioned, firewalls are digital gatekeepers that filter both incoming and outgoing traffic according to predetermined rules. Their core functions are traffic filtering, access control, and directing traffic in the inbound and outbound directions. There are several general types of firewalls. Packet filtering that examines individual data packets. Proxy firewalls that does intermediate filtering. Host based firewalls etc. What do you need? The only one that can answer that question is you. However, a good IT professional should be able to write you a program giving you what specifically you need.
Some firewalls come prepackaged. Check whether these would be sufficient for your needs. They may or may not be. It is worth the look.
Finally, seek help or advice from your vendors. Ask how they protect their systems. Helping is a very common practice. Vendors know that when they lose a customer the chances are very slim that they will ever get that customer back and it is more costly to replace that customer. Consequently, they want to give you every reason to stay a customer. If helping accomplishes that, they will gladly help.
If you have any comments, let us know. Email me at rdm@datastats.com. We will try to print it in our next newsletter.
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