[Techtalk] Personal firewalls: helpful?

[MMP - Barb Fox]

>I've heard of Windows users running personal firewalls (i.e.,
>implemented in software). I don't have to worry about that because I
>don't run Windows, but I do wonder whether these personal firewalls do
>any good. Obviously they're not as good as a dedicated machine, but I
>assume they still provide some protection.
>
>Does anyone know what kind of attacks personal firewalls protect against
>(and what kind of attacks they don't)?
Built into windows is a simple but effective firewall facility. You pick 
what ports you want
opened and/or closed (like port 80 for http and another port for ssh or 
whatever). It
doesn't have as many filtering options as more sophisticated tools
(like filtering on TCP flags, etc.), but it does what you tell it to do.

Barb Fox