This little tool allows you to set up a basic firewall
on your machine. It filters connection attempts made from the outside, and
blocks unauthorized ones. It's a good idea to run it before
connecting to the Internet, therefore minimizing the risks of your machine
being compromised.
This Wizard consists of the steps detailed below.
Open Up Ports, If Needed. If checked, uncheck the Everything (no firewall) box, and then check the boxes corresponding to the services you wish to make available to the outside world. If you wish to authorize a service which isn't listed here, click on Advanced to manually enter the port numbers to open and to control the logging of firewall messages.
This Won't Block You from Accessing the Net. Not checking a service in this list won't stop you from connecting to the Internet. It will only prevent people from the Internet connecting to that service on your machine. If you don't plan on hosting any services on your machine (common case for a desktop machine) just leave all boxes unchecked.
How to Disable the Firewall. On the other hand if you wish to disable the firewall and leave all services accessible from the outside, check Everything (no firewall), but please bear in mind that this is very insecure, and therefore not recommended.
Stay Informed of Connections
on your Machine.
The interactive firewall can warn you of
connection attempts on your machine by displaying alert popups through
the network applet. Check the Use Interactive
Firewall option to activate this feature.
Activate this option to be warned of malicious attempts to access your machine.
Next you are shown a checkbox for each port you have chosen to open during the previous step. Activating them will popup a warning each time a connection attempt is made on those ports.
The next step consists of selecting the network interface connected to the Internet.
If you don't know which interfaces you have connected for the Internet, you can check the system network configuration (see Seção 1.2, “Centro de Rede: Reconfigurando e Monitorando Interfaces de Rede”). You can finally click to install the required packages, activate the firewall and enjoy your secure Internet connection.