Protecting Your Computer with ZoneAlarm Firewall

There are many threats on the Internet - hacker activity, viruses, worms, etc. The ZoneAlarm Firewall protects your computer from most of those threats. It defines three security zones - Trusted, Public, and Blocked.

By default, the Public Zone works in High security mode, and the Trusted Zone works in Medium security mode:

• High security mode lets you browse the Internet, but does not let you share resources with other computers on the network. It protects you from the security risks associated with resource sharing. Unknown networks and most wireless networks, even secured wireless networks, should go in the Public Zone. You can give selected programs access permissions and/or server permissions as necessary. See Managing Application Control on how to configure program permissions.
• Medium security mode protects your computer from possible attacks on Windows networking services, but lets you share resources with other computers on the network. It also puts your computer in the component learning mode, where the ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall security software learns the MD5 signatures of frequently used program components, and minimizes alerts. Networks you know and trust, such as your home or business LAN and known protected wireless networks, should go in the Trusted Zone.
• Blocked Zone - contains computers and networks you distrust. No traffic to or from that Zone is allowed.

The ZoneAlarm Firewall is on by default as soon you as install it. You do not need to do anything, unless you want to change the default configuration, or to turn it off temporarily. To do that, go to Managing Basic Firewall Zone Settings.