A question about firewalls

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

Hello everyone.

I’n using right now the trial of the Avast Internet Security, and it comes with a firewall.
I have been using it for aprox. 20 days, and I used 3 different networks:

  • One from the college.
  • One from home.
  • One when I use the internet from my cell phone.

But, I leave every connection as private. I only fixed it now, by changing from “private” to “public” on the college’s network.
Leaving those connections to “private” can result into a problem or something?

Thank you guys for helping me.

2

Best thing to do is using a hardware firewall.

3

Hardware firewall?
Like a router firewall?

4

If you use your computer in more than one local, I will suggest a software firewall for sure.
Public is more secure (restrict access) than Private. If you move a network from Private to Public, less components are shared and security is improved.

5

Thank you for the reply.

Good to know that, since it’s a laptop, I’m using it in many different places.
So, that’s why I’m using the Avast firewall (but now, I will just use the “public” mode).

One more question: It’s okay to use it with the Windows firewall?

Thank you for helping me.

6

I have AIS installed, and windows firewall is not disabled. Avast Firewall and windows firewall work together on windows 7 just fine. In my WinXP machine, windows firewall was disabled when AIS was installed.