Personal Firewall

A personal firewall is an application which controls network traffic to and from a computer, permitting or denying communications based on a security policy. Typically it works as an application layer firewall.

A personal firewall differs from a conventional firewall in terms of scale. A personal firewall will usually protect only the computer on which it is installed, as compared to a conventional firewall which is normally installed on a designated interface between two or more networks, such as a router or proxy server. Hence, personal firewalls allow a security policy to be defined for individual computers, whereas a conventional firewall controls the policy between the networks that it connects.

The per-computer scope of personal firewalls is useful to protect machines that are moved across different networks. For example, a laptop computer may be used on a trusted intranet at a workplace where minimal protection is needed as a conventional firewall is already in place, and services that require open ports such as file and printer sharing are useful. The same laptop could be used at public Wi-Fi hotspots such as provided at cafés, airports or hotels, where more strict security is required to protect from malicious activity. Most personal firewalls will prompt the user when a new network is connected for the first time to decide the level of trust, and can set individual security policies for each network.

Many personal firewalls are able to control network traffic by prompting the user each time an application attempts a connection and will adapt the security policy accordingly. Personal firewalls may also provide some level of intrusion detection, allowing the software to terminate or block connectivity where it suspects an intrusion is being attempted.