Hey, I wrote a book... :<
Also what is a software firewall?
Computer security is a very tough subject and is a cat and mouse game.
This whole time I will be talking about security/firewall on Windows. Linux/BSD is a whole different game.
Let's start with the software firewall.
I sure will do a worse job than Wikipedia, but basically, it's a firewall that YOU run on your own computer. It's software that you install, that sits on the network adapter and lets you filter traffic, block IPs, apps from the internet, and so on. One major problem with Microsoft's firewall is that it's very permissive by default. Which makes sense, because millions would get digitally crippled if it was otherwise. But then.. why does it even exist? Exactly. It's useless.
There is a "default deny" firewall, like Comodo, ZoneAlarm, and so on. They will make your life hell until you learn how to configure them up. But, they will make sure no unknown traffic goes through. But. We are running Windows here, and (I am 99% sure) you run applications with admin rights. Thus, any application could just bypass these.
So, in my book, both are pointless. Software firewalls barely ever have any use. Most people used them back in the day so cracks would keep working, lol.
But wait, if you don't have a firewall, will the evil hacker take your selfie while you... no. That doesn't happen, this ain't Hollywood. First and foremost, most people have routers/modems. Even the most basic router/modem nowadays is a router itself. Meaning it will act as a NAT device and thus act as a firewall by itself. So just random things cannot come into your PC directly. (Yes, if there is a very good evil software that will do nat traversal and whatnot - but if that's the case, you are doomed either way.)
So all firewalls are junk? NO.
You CAN buy or rent very expensive (but also good, useful) enterprise firewalls. These block known threats, get frequent, good updates. These can protect a whole university/company from attacks. Very useful if they don't run the latest and greatest (they never do).
Unfortunately, the human factor is always there. And employees/people will open stupid links, files all the time. Regardless, these firewalls do offer good protection.
IP
How do you know if the infection is legitimate or just out of date?
Because IPs, especially attackers will vary, change. Who'd be so stupid to keep using the same IP continuously? Like renting a server, or buying a static IP and assigning a domain like "i.am.the.hacker.com" lol. No one. Attackers use infected routers, computers, servers, and whatnot. These IPs change so often, it's super pointless to even add them to any kind of definition.
Wasn't Microsoft Defender like a very simplistic rudimentary firewall?
- Defender: No, it was always an anti-virus. Windows received a firewall in XP, though it never made much sense. See the top part of my post. Defender sucked big time. It sucked from XP to 8. But in 10, it became actually useful, good.
And if it isn't will it run on Windows 7?
Windows 7 should not be used anymore, period. If you don’t like the fast updates of Windows 10, you can always pick up the LTSC version/key at stores, it’s what I run. It’s a less often updated version. But it’s still supported and it’s still safe.
But what is a DNS?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System
Basically, when you type “google.com” in your browser, your PC has to figure that one out. Google.com by itself is just a name. But who says what is Google.com? The DNS tells you that. Think of it like an address book - for the internet.
There are a few of them out there. By default, most people use their ISPs provided servers. But, companies also provide free ones as alternative. These can give you extra speed and even protection.
(adblock&protection) AdGuard DNS:
https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html
(speed&protection): Quad9:
https://www.quad9.net
(speed) Google’s DNS:
https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns
(speed) Cloudflare DNS:
https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns ... s-1.1.1.1/
You can even build your own, but honestly, there is really not much need to do that.
https://pi-hole.net
As far as backups I try to back up my computer to an external hard drive at least once a year but it takes like 2 days to do that.
Remember, hard drives, SSDs are mechanical, electrical devices. They can fail at any point, without any warning. Using “RAID” where you use multiple drives in parallel to offer protection - again - is no backup. You may get a power outage, overcurrent, lightning strike, flash flood, fire, whatever. You will probably survive but your data may not.
That’s why most of us use cloud providers or a service like Backblaze.
Cloud providers: Like Onedrive, Google Drive, Dropbox - they most often just give you a folder on your PC where things are synced with the cloud. Backblaze - they simply save ALL your files including your external drives (if they are connected) to their cloud and you can retrieve your files in a pinch.
At first, it may take a bit of time to get used to having a simple folder where you store all your important stuff. But after a while you realize, your actually important stuff does not take up all that much space. And this way, you remain organized, etc.
Myself, I use Onedrive, because I use their family package which offers like 5 accounts - all with 1TB storage space. But I also use Backblaze at people who are not experts. It worked great in the past and never had a problem with them.