Hey, Do you know a bridge having a security check, asking for authentication for incoming and outgoing through it, I hope answer is ‘yes’, we all know this, and have gone through this situation many times. A windows firewall is just like a bridge having a security check, controlling the data packets, which is to be allowed or not, between an internal network that is assumed to be secure and trusted, and another network, usually an external network, such as the Internet, that is not assumed to be secure and trusted.
Windows Firewall is a software component of Microsoft Windows that provides firewalling and packet filtering functions. It comes with the Microsoft windows as you buy the original one.One of 3 profiles are activated automatically for each network interface.
• Public profile: here the network is shared with the world and is most restricted one.
• Private profile: here the network is isolated from the internet and it allows more inbound connections.
• Domain profile: here the network is least restricted. It allows more inbound connections to allow for file sharing etc.
Windows 7 firewall contains some improvements then the earlier version of windows. It is more users friendly and has multiple active profiles. Windows 7 firewalls can be managed in following ways,
• Click the start button.
• Then click, control panel.
• In the search box type, firewall.
• Then click, windows firewall.
• In the left pane, click Turn Windows Firewall on or off.
• If you want to allow a program or features through windows firewall, click change settings.
• Select the check box next to the program you want to allow, select the network locations you want to allow communication on, and then click OK.
If some firewall settings are unavailable and your computer is connected to a domain, your system administrator might be remember, each time you choose to allow a program to communicate through your firewall, your computer will become less secure. The more items you allow through your firewall, the more at risk you become to hackers or malicious software controlling these settings through Group Policy. Windows 7 firewall comes with many limitations, some of them are listed below,
• It only protects about incoming threats.
• It does very little for outbounds.
• Most outbound connections will silently be blocked unless you thought to add the programs into the exclusion list.
• Separate rules are defined for each permissible outbound connection.
• It is difficult to configure windows firewall for outbound process for making it more secure.
So, it’s a difficult task for the users who are not more technical, their comes many third party tools which automatically solve these limitations. Some of the features of third party firewalls are as follows,
• More secure.
• Automatically controls inbound and outbound connections.
• Automatically creates definitions for outbound connections.
• More users friendly.
Friends, as firewalls makes the system more secure but they also decrease the performance of computer, but it is very less and can be neglected, because security is more important then performance. In market their comes many third party windows firewall management software tools, check all the features mentioned above, even you can go for my recommendation, visit site www.impcsupport.com, they also provide online technical support, windows maintenance tools, if you face any problem you can go for it.

Author's Bio: 

Bella Martin received the Master degree in software engineering in 2006 and
currently serving as a software engineer at Impcsupport. She provides informative articles on
Online PC Support, windows maintenance tools, windows support, computer maintenance tools
and software’s.