Hardware firewalls that are incorporated in routers use a network address translation server that hides your networked computers' IP addresses from anyone outside your network. The theory of hardware firewalls is that you can’t attack what you can’t see. Hardware firewalls are highly configurable, or another way of saying highly confusing for most of us. There is no easy way to configure them because broadband providers use so many different configurations to get their signal to you. It’s a daunting task because you must know about ports and you must know how your ISP uses these ports and how to put this info together in specifying what your router is supposed to do.

Software firewalls are more like virus detectors. They can prevent Trojan horses, spyware, and backdoor software from sending and receiving data. They’re easier to configure but can cause severe problems if your network varies from what the designers of the firewall expect.

Once the software firewall is installed. You may not be able to reverse the process. And these free firewalls do not provide support.

By and large our protection is large numbers and little in our computers that anyone else wants.