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Personal Firewalls at Home

Mar 21, 2003

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This chapter is from the book 

Personal Firewalls for Administrators and Remote Users

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Summary

We have seen that the average home computer is an attractive target for attackers. We keep useful personal data on our computers, we bring confidential work data home, and we provide a way to obscure the trail of an attacker targeting someone else.

We want to consider the following when making our selection:

Create a personal security policy to define your needs. Include any requirements imposed by your employer's security policy, if necessary.
Look online at the products that will meet your security requirements. Use the free demos for a time to be sure you can use the product to meet your needs.
From this short list, choose the product that you can easily install, configure, and manage based on your computer skills and comfort level.
Remember to look at the long-term maintenance requirements when making a selection.

Finding the right personal firewall to use at home depends entirely on our own requirements, skills, interests, and budget. To help you with your search, the Appendix contains a comparison of major personal fire-wall products.

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