A PC connected to the internet is exposed to the reception of data which, theoretically, should only be those requested by the user. In reality, however, every program running on the computer can take advantage of the internet to communicate with someone who may be a website, a central server or even a stranger's computer or hacker.
To give a trivial example, the most classic of the programs that use the internet is the Chrome browser, which opens a new connection every time a new website is opened.
A malware that secretly self-installs itself by the user could instead open a connection to its creator and transmit the data from our computer to him.
In another article, we explained how to find out the internet connections used by PC programs.
To have control over these connections, protect the internet and authorize online access of the programs in use on the PC there is a special function integrated in Windows 7 and 8, the Firewall.
However, since using the Windows firewall is not too simple and, above all, it does not offer tools to customize the various permissions and to block the connections of specific programs on a PC, it is worth installing a large Windows PC application called TinyWall .
TinyWall (can also be downloaded from Softpedia) is a small free PC program that provides real protection to internet traffic by allowing the user to check the connections established by the various programs and block unauthorized ones.
Compared to the best Firewall programs to protect the network and block intrusions from the Internet, Tinywall has two particularities that make it preferred for home use and for less experienced users: it is a very light program and it is extremely simple .
Tinywall is just 1 MB light on the installation file and just 10 MB of RAM memory consumed when running.
This is because, in fact, it relies on the Windows Firewall and works only as its configuration interface.
Tinywall is therefore not a Firewall per se, but only a firewall settings panel included with Windows which is more than enough to protect the internet and connections from the programs in use.
Once installed, you can simply do it this way.
First of all, make sure you don't have malware on your computer, perhaps by doing a quick anti-malware scan.
Also keep in mind that the Windows firewall, after installing TinyWall, is reset and any rules already configured will be deleted.
When using for the first time, click with the right mouse button on the shield icon that appears near the clock (if it does not appear, press the arrow upwards in the notification area), go to Change mode and select the learning mode.
With the learning mode Tinywall will let all the programs you use pass on the internet.
It will therefore be convenient to open all the programs that are used on the PC, the browser, Chrome, Firefox, the Email client, Skype, the chat, Google Drive, Dropbox etc.
So without downloading and installing anything new, use the PC for a while, even a whole day, leaving the learning mode.
Tinywall will configure the rules automatically according to the use made of the various programs.
In the end, when deemed appropriate, change the mode by putting Normal Protection .
The programs used will continue to work and you can check how they access the internet by exchanging data online by clicking on Show connections (always in the menu of the TinyWall icon).
Always at the first start, from the menu options, click on High to run Tinywall with administrator rights and make it more effective.
The other TinyWall options (which being in Italian are easy to understand) allow you to:
- activate a Blocklist to prevent known malware from using the internet on your computer and to prevent the opening of malicious websites.
- Authorize individual processes, executable files and open program windows.
In this way, when using a new program, you can easily authorize it for online access by selecting its window.
- From the Setup button, the configuration menu opens to enable the protection of the Hosts file, to manage the programs that can always access the internet (the exceptions), activate the special exceptions of some Windows network services such as the remote desktop or sharing files and printers.
- Unblock LAN traffic, ie keep traffic free on the local network and encourage the exchange of files between computers.
- With the Show connections button you will have the list of all the programs that are now using the internet.
TinyWall is a small Windows PC software very effective for protecting the internet that I recommend everyone to install which, after the first quick configuration, can be left active being sure to block any program that tries to access the internet, at least until it has authorization.
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