The term “firewall” originally referred to fireproof walls that were designed to prevent the spread of fire from one room or building to the next. They were typically made of brick, steel, or another type of inflammable material that would effectively limit the spread of the fire. In the IT world, firewalls do not involve any fire or pyrotechnics, but they serve a similar purpose. A computer firewall limits the data that can pass through it and protects a networked server or client machine from damage by unauthorized users.

Firewalls can be either hardware or software-based. A router is a good example of a hardware device that has a built-in firewall. Most routers can be configured to limit traffic from certain IP addresses or block requests based on other criteria. Software programs that monitor and restrict external access to a computer or network can also serve as firewalls. A network firewall only allows authorized traffic from the Internet to flow in and out of the network.

A firewall is a computer software or device that is able to control data traffic over a network. Firewalls should be able to control both inbound and outbound data traffic of related computers to protect from intrusions initiated through a remote computer or data leaks initiated by malwares installed on the local computer.

VPN Stands for “Virtual Private Network” and is a network term that most computer users don’t need to know, but at least you can impress your friends by talking about it. A virtual private network is “tunneled” through a wide area network WAN such as the Internet. This means the network does not have to be located in one physical location like a LAN. However, by using encryption and other security measures, a VPN can scramble all the data sent through the wide area network, so the network is “virtually” private.

Businesses often use VPNs to communicate across multiple locations. For example, a large company that has offices in several cities may need to send data to the different locations via the Internet. To keep the information secure, the company might set up a VPN with an encrypted connection. This is similar to having a secure intranet over the Internet. On a smaller scale, individual users may have a VPN account with their company, which allows them to connect to their office computer from their home or another location. This is especially helpful for business travelers who need to access office data from their laptops.