April 10, 2007

Dear Sassy: What is a firewall? I hear about it all the time, I just don't know what it is.
~ Just call me the Fireman, that's my name

Dear Fireman: This is a great question! There are several uses for the word firewall. For instance, did you know that your car has a firewall? It is located between the engine of your car and the driver. Its purpose is to protect the driver in case of an explosion or other dangerous malfunction the engine might encounter. But Sassy is guessing that the "firewall" you are asking about is not in your Honda. A computer firewall separates one computer from the other computers on the other side of the "wall." Firewalls help limit computer viruses and spam email, and serve as a filter to the Internet. A firewall can either be hardware or software based. Basically a firewall will let you perform regular Internet surfing while making sure that individuals on the Internet can not access your files on your machine. So in a sense, both types of firewalls protect the end user; however, Sassy hopes that your computer will not explode nor have a dangerous malfunction.