how2_firewall.htm

How Firewalls Work and How They Affect You

A firewall is a piece of software that many software makers, including Microsoft, have devised to help protect your computer from intrusions of many kinds -- from unauthorized users ("hackers"), from other software that has destructive capability and from other "scripts" or applications that provide spying functions on what you do on your computer and report back to someone else with personal or private information.

The firewall software generally is one of the first applications that starts up automatically during the Windows start-up process, usually before the desktop is even displayed and before you can use any other programs. By starting up with Windows, it can protect your computer against more outside attacks. But because firewall software runs all the time, it does use up some of the computer's horsepower and it can sometimes cause the computer to seem to perform sluggishly. This happens when it's doing its job, protecting your computer from the "outside." Some users may have multiple firewalls running on their computers -- this slows them down even more. Having more than one running isn't generally a good idea.

So, the bottom line is that like an actual firewall in a building that keeps the "fire" in an adjacent apartment from breaking into your apartment, a software firewall protects the inside of your computer from the outside computing world.

But just having a firewall on your computer isn't enough -- you also must keep it up-to-date because the "hackers" in the outside world are always developing new methods to "fool" or "break" through existing firewall software. This is why you must periodically update your firewall software, too, because firewall software providers are always one step behind the hackers.

But sometimes, a firewall may work too well -- it may keep ALL other computers from connecting to your computer, which is very bad in an office network or POS system situation where others need to be able to use the data that resides on a specific computer. Club Office is an example because the Club Office system programs and data reside on one computer and all other office computers that use Club Office need to be able to get to those programs and data. If the firewall is set up to prevent all outside access, users who need access can't get in, which prevents them from even starting Club Office. The usual result is some sort of Windows network error message, such as "the requested folder or drive is unavailable" or sometimes, nothing happens at all -- it appears as if your computer has gone into Neverneverland! In any event, the result is the same: you can't get connected and therefore, you can't get your work done.

It's important to understand that firewall software affects how the computer itself behaves, which in turn can affect software operated on that computer. Because no Club Office software contains a firewall and Club Office does not have the capability to automatically bypass a firewall's settings, Club Office's performance is completely at the mercy of the firewall.

If your computer suddenly cannot connect to another computer or it loses its connection, the connection problem has not been caused by Club Office software.

It is the user's responsibility to know how to configure and update firewall software. Check the built-in help files on your firewall software for information.

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