Please keep it simple for me

[honsbeekgmail2]

Hi

i'm a 6 year old Kid who wants to know more about firewalls.
Actually i'm 29 and know so little about it. How likely is it that someone
will come into your computer and snoop around and accuse you of looking at pornsites. How is it possible for someone to know. I think I protect myself pretty well, but am not good a computer wiz to know if someone is looking with me.

Also what and how can anyone (hackers) see what we are doing. Can they know everything, like if they were sitting infront of the monitors themselves, I doubt that. If that were the case wouldn't a smart firewall simply block the view from any intruder by simply letting them in but blindfolding them , by firewalling the line that connects the event on the computer to the Monitor interface. So that would also prevent the intruders from seeing what is happening, would it not. You can break into somebodies house, but if there is no lights , they wouldn't be able to steal that much would they ???

I am thinking about installing some high reviewed firewall, but am afraid it will only slow down and make my computer harder to maintain.
Now I just let the Windows xp sp1 basic wirefall do his work.

I say all this because I got freaked out today , because after a while playing on the computer, I looked at my desktop and several Icons and folders were deleted and I can't find them. So I think someone has come into my computer and done this.... Total paranoia... Could it be caused by recent virusses???

So please advise on some wirewall and the use of it. Might I buy a hardware firewall instead ??

Thankyou for listening
Ralph

 

[riser]

A firewall blocks ports. It doesn't hide anything you do on your computer. When you surf the internet, in most cases you use port 80. (we just know that, don't worry why it's port 80)
So, the firewall lets your connections out, let's requested connections in. If I were to send a connection request to your computer from mine, chances are the firewall wouldn't allow it. Your computer has to request the connection in order for the firewall to let it through. (Or if you make a change on your firewall, it can let an outside connection in, but that's a little more advanced).

A firewall doesn't block what you're doing on the internet. Yes, people can get on your physical computer and find out what you're been doing. If you go to certain websites, they can track what you do. If you hit a porn site and that site tracks everythign you do, it can install things on your computer, etc. Why did it get through the firewall? Because you went to the site and allowed it through your firewall.

The firewall basically protects against unwanted access to your computer. Things coming in are denied, things going out open a hole to let things come back in from your connection.

Your Computer is A, Internet is B.

If your computer makes a connection to a website, your computer can talk to that website through the firewall, but the website can talk to your computer too.

If another computer tries to connect to your computer via the internet without your computer's request, the firewall should block it.

 

[honsbeekgmail2]

Hi Riser,

One more thing,

how about the IP2 Ip clients we all use , like Edonkey, Kazaa etc...
Will a Firewall prevent the use of that? And how big is the change of getting hacked via that way? Also were you referring to spyware that is put on my computer without me knowing about it? Can hackers only see what I'm doing is they first install a small software on my computer first??? Will latest updated Spyware Killing software and virus software detect it?

Also I'm so cunfused, you say hackers can see everything you do , so for example when I am using Photoshop to view and edit pictures, how will they be able to voyeur what i am doing ????

Respect

 

[El0him]

If you are a simple home user, just install some spyware removal software, antivirus software and some firewall like zone alarm will take care of you. Of course you have to be vigilent and update your virus and spyware signature files. Don't sure porn and key your hands on the keyboard at all times.

if your firewall allows you to filter on packets that's even better. For a home user, just filter out all TCP SYN packets incoming and TCP SYN/ACK packets outgoing. This assures that no computer on the outside cannot connect to yours via TCP. This still allows you to initiate TCP connections for surfing and so forth. Next thing to do is filter out all UDP ports except for the ones you actually use... You shold be pretty safe after this.