Having a reliable firewall is necessary if you plan to spend a lot of time on the Internet. There are basically two types of firewalls: hardware firewalls and software firewalls. Router often works as a hardware firewall, and its role is to block potential attacks on your PC. However, most people associate the term firewall with a software firewall. Good examples of reliable software firewalls are Zone Alarm and Comodo Firewall. They are a very effective protection that will hide all the open ports you might have. Open ports are a vulnerability, and they open a door for potential attacks. A typical Internet user might not even know what an open port is, and that is why it is important that each Internet user has a firewall installed on his PC. You can easily install most firewalls from an USB drive. If you really want to have the best possible firewall protection, I recommend that you use both a hardware and software firewall at the same time. A hacker will have a very hard time trying to bypass such security, and he will most likely not succeed. We need to realize that we are not helpless when it comes to dealing with hackers, and there are effective ways to protect our computers. The first step is to use reliable firewalls.