Firewalls

[rdcmmnst]

I know that a firewall is a program that monitors all of the internet traffic flowing in and out of your computer. Don't they also change your ip address called like a subnet mask or something like that...

So when it says ip:logged does that mean they really have my ip address.. (no i'm not trying to cheat the system haha)

 

[technoman2]

yeah they hide information about your computer so hackers can not find you online

 

[rdcmmnst]

But what exactly does it do just monitor the ports and change my ip address. And is it soley for hackers or... i donno i just want to know how they work.

 

[technoman2]

http://www.howstuffworks.com/firewall.htm
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/firewall.htm

 

[catalyst1]

Don't they also change your ip address called like a subnet mask or something like that...

The subnet mask is another IP-length value that, when overlapped with your actual IP address, tells the network what part of your address is the network address and what part is your machine's address within that network. For example:


164.105.32.109 > Your IP.
255.255.0.0 > Your subnet mask.

Now those numbers might not mean much, but let's convert them to binary:

10100100.01101001.00100000.01101101 > Your IP.
11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 > Your subnet mask.

Now it might be a little more apparent to you. If you add the two addresses together, you get:

10100100.01101001.00000000.00000000
OR
164.105.0.0

That is your network address. Your personal address within that network would be the other portion:

0.0.32.109



Sorry if that confused you, but that's what a subnet mask is for. Just to tell network components what part of the IP is the NETWORK ADDRESS and what part is the LOCAL ADDRESS.

 

[rdcmmnst]

Wow, yeah that made alot of sense..but still does computer forum know my real ip address or just my subnet mask...i guess it doesnt matter since it just adds them together.. it's the same so it protects you but it's not like you can change it ok. thanks i guess i was just thinking out loud