- Administering Firewalls and Touring Its Advanced Options
- Tracking What's Going On with Your Firewall
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Tracking What's Going On with Your Firewall
All firewalls have the capability to report activity, with the most advanced firewalls even providing statistics by IP address as to who is trying to get into your company's networks. Microsoft has provided a logging capability to track the activity of the ICF it has included in Windows XP. Here are the steps involved with turning on event logging with the Windows XP ICF:
Open the network connection on your system that you are currently using to access the Internet.
Right-click on the Internet Connections icon, and choose Properties.
Click once on the Advanced tab.
Click once on the Settings tab.
Click once on the Security Logging tab to display the options shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Using the security logging capabilities of Windows XP to track events on the ICF.
Click once on the Log dropped packets option to keep track of attempted hacks into your system.
Click OK to enable the ICF's logging capabilities, as defined through these steps. Assuming you are on the Internet right now you will receive a message that when you log in again a log file will be created to record all activities on the firewall.
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Making Your Browser Secure
The first steps of Internet security in Windows XP have to do with the connections you make to check e-mail, send and receive messages, and visit Web sites. The underlying connectivity in Windows XP has the added element of security that is possible with the ICF explained in the previous section. The ICF is a foundational element in an overall security strategy.
Configuring your browser for the highest level of security you want is explained here. Keep in mind that there is a tradeoff between the level of security your browser provides and the relative ease of navigating and using the Internet. If you want the most robust security in your browser possible, your navigation of the Internet will be slowed down due to many checks and preventative measures. It's best to look for a balance leaning toward greater security for best results. Any highly confidential files and data should be hidden behind a firewall that is inaccessible via browser at all for the highest level of security.
Microsoft includes the option of installing Internet Explorer 6.0 during the Windows XP Professional Install. Throughout the two release candidates and the released version, I installed it, and found that IE 6.0 is faster and more reliable than previous browser versions, and actually is better at handling e-mails than Netscape Communicator. The fact is that IE 6.0 does have some strong security features that, when coupled with the security options in XP, make for a strong combination for maintaining privacy.
Follow these series of steps for defining the level of security you want in Internet Explorer 6.0:
Open Internet Explorer 6.0. It is installed with Windows XP if you toggle the install screen for it during the operating system's load process.
Select Internet Options from the Tools menu.
Click on the Security tab to show that specific page of the dialog box. Figure 4 is an example of the Security page of the Internet Options dialog box in IE 6.0.
Figure 4 The Security page of the Internet Options dialog box is used to configure the relative level of security while browsing the Web.
Notice that there are four zones, as defined in the dialog box. The higher the level of security set for each of these zones, the more restrictions are placed on how you navigate around the Internet. For comparison purposes, here are the default settings for each zone:
Internet: All new Internet Web sites that you have never visited before are placed in this zone. Default security level for this zone is Medium.
Local intranet: Includes Web sites available for your company's own intranet, as opposed to sites on the public Internet. Default security level is Medium Low.
Trusted sites: Initially empty, you can place Web sites that you trust into this category to maximize their access to your system. Default security level is Low.
Restricted sites: Initially empty, this category works the same as the Trusted sites domain. Using this category, you can record sites you visit but don't trust. Default level for this domain is High.
Here's an example of how to change the specific security level defined for any of the four zones listed above. Click once on the Internet zone and then select any level along the sliding scale underneath the Security level for this zone area of the dialog box.
After the security level has been set, click once on Apply. The security level is then recorded for the Internet at the specific level you've highlighted.
Click once on OK to close the Internet Options dialog box.
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NOTE
You can use the steps in the previous example to set the security level for any of the five zones. Recall that the higher the level of security set per zone, the more restrictive accessing and using the Internet will be. A good idea is to define the trusted sites as quickly as you can to maximize performance when browsing those sites. Others not trusted but needed should also be entered into the Restricted sites zone.