| What is a firewall and why use it? |
 A firewall is simply a virtual wall that protects your computer or your network against hackers and offensive websites. It's called firewall, because of the similarity with a real firewall, whose job is to prevent spreading fire from one area to another.
When you have a computer that is connected to the internet, with a fast internet connection, virtually everyone on the web could access your computer or the network of computers connected to the internet. This can be very annoying but also very dangerous.
A firewall protects your computer from being hacked by someone on the net. Next to that, a firewall can also be a filter for data. This allows managers and also parents to put filters on the firewall to prevent people from surfing on offensive websites or receiving spam for example.
What a firewall can't protect your computer from are viruses and malicious software. Why? Because most of the time those viruses are hidden in good files. The firewall can't filter those files. So, because a firewall can't protect your computer against viruses, you should install additional anti-virus software on your computer.
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