Software Firewall
If you have a hardware firewall and have it set for stealth mode, I have previously suggested that a separate software firewall (other than the firewall that comes with Windows) was not necessary if you have every other security item set up as described on this site. However, some very useful features come with some of today's firewalls, such as the free COMODO firewall. A firewall such as the COMODO firewall will analyze every software download that you perform to determine whether or not the downloaded file appears to be either malware or an unwanted program, and it may be able to do this without interfering with your resident anti-malware application. You should also note that in general, if you have a hardware firewall that is NOT set to stealth mode, then a software firewall will NOT cause your computer connection to be invisible to hackers. They will see that there is a possibility that you are online, even if your software firewall is set to stealth mode. A powerful software firewall such as the FREE version ONLY of COMODO may be of significant benefit to you. Be careful to install ONLY the free components, and that includes to NOT install any trial use components because they may interfere with the functioning of your resident anti-malware scanner. You may download the free version here. Be sure to select whether your Windows operating system is 32 bit or 64 bit, if the download site requires the distinction. Most home versions of Windows XP are 32 bit. However, many of the latest versions of Windows will generally be 64 bit.
Powerful software firewalls such as COMODO also detect communications coming from inside your computer to the Internet—thus helping to prevent malware that might be installed on your computer from being able to do whatever it was programmed to do, such as steal your user-IDs and passwords that you use for looking at your bank account or other secure sites. The difficulty in using these more powerful firewalls is knowing which communications (coming from inside your computer to the Internet) to allow and which to disallow. Even for the computer savvy person, this may become difficult. If COMODO asks you too many questions and is bothersome to you, you may wish to run it in the Game Mode. You may also wish to disable Geek Buddy (which is a part of the firewall package)—that is stop it from being one of the start-up programs when your computer boots. You can also use one of the utilities of jv16, if you wish, to control which programs start when your computer boots.
When you install your software firewall, disable your Windows firewall.
A good software firewall can be of significant benefit even if you have a good hardware firewall set to stealth mode.
My personal preference is to use a more secure operating system such as Ubuntu Linux, instead of Windows, for performing highly sensitive activities such as logging on to your bank account.
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