Firewall

From Mandrivausers Wiki

What is a Firewall and do I need one?

A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

A firewall is considered a first line of defense in protecting private information. Although Linux systems like Mandriva are basically quite secure, it is however a good option to run a firewall. Popular firewall-tools are Guarddog, Firestarter and Shorewall. These are all frontend to IPtables, which is the real firewall on your computer.

Mandriva and Firewalls

Mandriva comes with a preinstalled firewall, which can be activated by the user at the end of the install procedure. It can also be set up later using the Mandriva Control Center (MCC). In the most recent release (2008.1 aka 2008 Spring) the firewall is turned un by default. If you are having problems with incoming connections in for example p2p programs this may be one of the reasons.