Firewall

Effective Use of Firewalls
Once you've invested in a good firewall, let us help you get the most out of it.   Firewalls are made to protect your IT system, and they can do a very good job at it if employed correctly with advanced options enabled.

Be certain that your firewall provides:

• Protection from Viruses and Spyware:  You want to stop viruses before they even enter your network and get to your servers or PCs.  For maximum security, we recommend having virus protection at the edge of the network (the firewall), then on the servers / email, and then on the PCs.
• Intruder Prevention:  This is slightly different than a virus.  It is someone on the outside with a PC trying to attack your network and get in.  Firewall subscription services can effectively block most intruders
• Traffic Shaping:  A firewall also lets you limit the type of traffic that is going through your network.  This can be very important if you find that certain individuals are downloading movies, songs, playing games, and taking valuable bandwidth away from your real work.   Firewall advanced options let you track and stop certain types of traffic.  They also let you guarantee that bandwidth is available for certain types of work.  For example, if your email traffic is most important, you may want to guarantee that it always has 20% of your bandwidth.
• Content Filtering:  This service allows you to stop users from going to places on the web that are inappropriate or that might have legal implications for your type of business. 

Most of the above services require annual subscriptions or an Enhanced OS in your firewall.  When you look at the cost of lost productivity and the expense you pay for removing viruses and other malware, you'll find that most of these options are quite affordable.  You can normally purchase the services individually, or bundled together for a discount.