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As we grow increasingly connected to the internet, security is becoming more important than ever. Firewalls on our computers have existed for a long time, but sometimes, it can actually be more problematic than useful, which is why turning it off can actually be a good thing. But before we decide to turn it off, what exactly is a firewall and what does it do?

A firewall can be thought off as a wall of bricks surrounding our home. This wall helps to keep unwanted visitors out while protecting the residents of the home. In tech terms, it helps to protect your computer from unwanted intrusions from the likes of hackers or malware which might be trying to compromise your system and gain access to your personal information.

It will scan incoming internet data for things that are known to cause problems, and thus prevents it from infecting your computer system and causing havoc.

So right off the bat, firewalls sound a lot like antivirus software designed to protect your computer from threats, but there are differences. Having a firewall does not negate the need for antivirus software, even though it does protect your computer to a certain degree.

In the case of antivirus, you can think of it like a metal detector of sorts. Imagine a bad person was at the airport and they were looking to fly somewhere, so they use a fake passport and somehow get past immigration (firewall). Now that theyre inside the airport, they will need to go through a metal detector (antivirus) that will pick up any illegal objects like knives or guns they might be trying to smuggle on board.

Antivirus also works great for computers or devices that arent connected to the internet, where if you try to load a program from a disk or a USB drive that has malware, it will pick up on that.

With that being said, it sounds like having a firewall is a great thing, doesnt it? But that doesnt mean that it doesnt run into issues every now and then.

This is because computers pretty much just do what theyre told to do, theyre generally not smart enough to think on their own.

This means that as long as an action, connection, or program has been deemed as bad (or even risky), it will block it, even though it might not necessarily be the case.

For example, system administrators might need to do some work like applying software updates or installing new applications, and sometimes a firewall might prevent them from doing that.

As an end-user, you might also run into similar issues where programs or applications may run incorrectly or not at all due to their connection being blocked, and this is why you might want to turn off the firewall.

IMPORTANT: Most app developers will have a guide for users that bump into a Firewall issue. We recommend trying that first, as disabling the Firewall greatly increases your security risk. But if youre set on disabling the Firewall, please continue reading

Filed in Computers. Read more about Macos, Microsoft, Security, Windows and Windows 10.

The rest is here:
How To Turn Off Firewall In Windows And Mac - Ubergizmo