A firewall protects your network from unwanted
Internet traffic. The primary functions of a firewall are to let good traffic
pass through while ‘bad’ traffic gets blocked. The most important part of a
firewall is its access control features that distinguish between good and bad
traffic. When installed, a firewall exists between your computer(s) and the
Internet. The firewall lets you request web pages, download files, chat, etc.
while making sure other people on the internet can not access services on your
computer like file or print sharing. Some firewalls are pieces of software that
run on your computer. Other firewalls are built into hardware and protect your
whole network from attacks. 
Everyone
connected to the Internet should be running some sort of firewall. Programs can
be downloaded on the Internet that can scan huge ranges of IP address for
vulnerabilities like file sharing services. These programs are easy to download
and run. Almost no network knowledge is needed to use these programs to exploit
or harm your computer. Any kind of firewall will keep you safe from these types
of attacks.
Software Firewall Software
firewalls are programs that run on your computer and nestle themselves between
your network card software drivers and your operating system. They intercept
attacks before your operating system can even acknowledge them. Many firewalls
of this type exist on the Internet. Here are some firewalls.
Simple NAT firewall The
firewalls that are built into broadband routers and software like Microsoft ICS
are very simple firewalls. 
hey protect your LAN by not letting anyone figure out how to ‘directly’ talk
to any of the computers on your LAN. This level of protection will keep out
almost all kinds of hackers. Advanced hackers may be able to take advantage of
certain inadequacies of NAT based firewalls, but they are few and far between.
Firewalls with stateful packet
inspection The new trend in home networking firewalls is called
stateful packet inspection. This is an advanced form of firewall that examines
each and every packet of data as it travels through the firewall. The firewall
scans for problems in the packet that might be a symptom of a ‘denial of
service’ (dos) attack or advanced attacks. Most people are never subject to
these types of attacks, but there are some areas of the Internet that invite
these kinds of attacks. Most often, these attacks come from being involved in
certain kinds of competitive on-line gaming or participating in questionable
mIrc channels.
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