Installing Personal Firewall
Before installing Personal Firewall, it is a good idea to make
a list of the pieces of software you use regularly on the
Internet. Personal Firewall will allow you to configure those
specific applications to be allowed to go out to the Internet.
It is also a good idea to get the specific ports the application
uses. You may need to contact the software vendor for this
information. If they cannot provide the ports, we can get
around that easily.
Once you have the list of programs you use and where they
are installed to on your machine, we can start with the download
of Personal Firewall. You will need to open your web browser
and go to the following site:
http://www.mail-block.com/firewall/purchase.cfm
This will bring you to the download page. Click on one of
the download sites and a pop up window will come up. From
this window, select Save File To Disk, after selecting that
option, you will be prompted where to save the file to. It
is a good rule of thumb to save the files to a folder that
is easy to remember. Generally the desktop is a good place
to save the files to. To select the desktop to save the file
to, at the top of this window in the Save In pull down menu
at the top, click on the down arrow and select Desktop from
the list of folders.
After the download has been completed, on your desktop is
the file that you just downloaded. Double click on this file
and it will begin the installation. Once the installation
is complete you will be asked to restart your computer. This
is suggested since the settings of Personal Firewall will not
go into effect until the computer is restarted. After the
restart you will see the Personal Firewall logo in the system
tray. If you double click on this icon it will bring up the
User Interface of Personal Firewall.
Also by default, the Security Setting will be set to a medium
setting. This is the highest form of protection Personal Firewall
can provide while still allowing Internet Activity. The High
setting will be a complete lockdown of the machine. No Internet
Activity will be allowed out and all incoming traffic will
be blocked. This is suggested for users to set if they leave
their computer on with an always on line connection.
Allowing programs to access the Internet
To allow programs to access the Internet you will need to
have the list of programs you wish to add. This is suggested
as convenience so that no programs are missed when adding
them to the list.
To add the programs, there are 2 ways about doing this. The
first and most likely easiest is when any application that
is not added to this application list tries to access the
Internet, Personal Firewall will bring up a pop up box asking
you if you want to allow access to this application or deny
access. This is generally the easiest way to configure Personal Firewall.
you will need to open Personal Firewall and click on the Application
Settings tab. This will show a predefined list of applications
already configured. This list includes ICQ, Internet Explorer,
Netscape, Outlook and Outlook Express to name a few. To add
your specific program, right click in the list of applications
and select Add New Application. This will bring up a window
that will allow you to browse to the location of the software.
You will need to then double click on the executable file
for the software you wish to add. This will select the file
and add it to the list of software to be allowed.
Now we will need to select the access rights the software
receives. Click on the Application settings tab from the lower
left hand corner and then select the application you wish
to edit. Right click the application and select Customize
Rules. This will bring up a properties window for the resources
for this specific application. Click Add New and then you
will be required to give this resource a name. This can be
anything (product name, friendly description for the resource),
and then you will need to check the two boxes for the Direction
for which this rule applies. Having both checked is the best
suggestion since most pieces of software deal with incoming
and outgoing packets.
For each resource you will need to select a protocol for
that resource as well as a local and remote ports the software
uses. This is where you will need the port number and type
(TCP or UDP) of packet the software uses. In the pull down
menu to the right of the protocol type, you can select some
predefined ports listed here. If the port you need is not
here, then you will have to manually type it in. The field
for local is going to be the port the software is sending
the information out on, and the remote field is the port the
software is receiving the software on. This can be better
described by using the Web browser as an example. You can
configure any kind of proxy settings in the browser. This
is the port that the software is sending its request on; by
default all web pages are generally port 80 or 85. This is
the port the web browser is receiving the information on.
After entering in protocol and port number, you will need
to check the bottom check boxes. These boxes represent the
firewall settings the software is allowed to be used with.
It is suggested if the software is used on a regular basis,
to have all three boxes checked. This will allow the software
to be used on all three firewall settings and should function
at all times without problem.
You will have to create multiple resources if the software
uses multiple ports or protocols. If you do not know the port
numbers that the software uses, you can select the ANY option.
This will allow Personal Firewall to see the port that the software
is using and allow it to go out since you are allowing any
ports to be used for that software.
You should then be allowed to use the software that you configured
in the Applications tab without any problem.
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