McAfee Firewall sits between your system and the Internet. After installation, you can answer a wizard-guided "interview" that configures your firewall's behavior, along with the programs that will be permitted to work on the Web. Better yet, as individual applications attempt to access the network, the McAfee Firewall will prompt you without interrupting your normal work. After an ordinary session of computer use, this utility had discovered our browser, mail client, and FTP utility, and we weren't bothered with any more warning messages.

Behind the scenes, McAfee Firewall logs every attempt at network access, saving the last 100 messages. By using its console-like utility, you can view network activity for every program that's running currently. This application gives you fine-grained control of protocols besides basic TCP/IP, with such acronyms as ARP, DCHP, ICMP, NetBIOS, RIP, and PPTP. Although you might not have heard of them, several of these protocols can be used in denial-of-service and other kinds of attacks.

A handy online help page documents the well-known types of security threats. (Chances are that you'll be surprised at the variety of ways there are to disrupt your system.) Don't worry, however; by checking the "Log Unknown Traffic" option in McAfee Firewall and regularly reviewing your log, you can detect any suspicious activity. In all, this low-cost utility can deliver peace of mind and solid security in an application that doesn't get in the way of your everyday Web browsing. --Rich Dragan

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firewall, mcafee, utility, network, network mcafee firewall, system internet, network mcafee, firewall mcafee