Dear Geek,
Once in a while, my computer says the firewall blocked a program from running. Why is this happening? What the heck is a firewall anyways?
Sincerely,
Hit the wall
Dear blocked,
A firewall is a kind of extra protection which helps filter through programs and information trying to reach your computer. It allows good information through, while stopping hackers and virus programs. The only problem with this, is sometimes the firewall is a bit overprotective, like your mother. If the program appears bad in any way, the firewall says you can’t be friends with it. Usually, this is a good thing, but when you’re trying to play the new Star Trek game that you downloaded online, but your mom- I mean firewall, tells you that you can’t because it’s an unknown program, it seems like kind of a hassle and an annoyance.
Evermore I tell you how to turn it off, there’s a few things you should think of. Turning off the firewall for a bit to run a program is most likely alright, but doing it for a long period of time might allow hackers or viruses onto your computer. If you’re going to turn it off, don’t forget to turn it back on, and make sure you have other protection, like an antivirus, protecting your computer. Also, always leave firewall on if you’re on an unsecure wifi network, like if you’re at a coffee shop. This is because you don’t know who else could be on the network, or what they could be doing.
To turn off your firewall, the easiest way is to go to the start menu, and search “windows firewall” in the search box. Pick the “windows firewall” option that pops up. In the left sidebar, click “turn windows firewall on or off”. Under “home or work network settings”, click “turn windows firewall off”. The option to turn it back on after, is right above this, and says “turn windows firewall on”.
If you have a question for our Resident Geek, send it to: geek@tbyd.ca.
We’ll translate it from Geek-lish to English, so it actually helps!
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