IP Filtering
In this article we are going to discuss IP filtering, its benefits and how it can help you and your computers security.
Imagine an IP address is like a telephone, and we all hate annoying marketing calls. This would be a way to stop those people ringing you. When a bad IP address tries to connect to your computer it will be inspected by the IP filtering software and will either be blocked or accepted. This can be beneficial for many reasons, one of the main being that there are servers which are known to have spyware, adware or viruses on them, this will completely block them from ever accessing your computer and infecting it.
IP filtering programs usually use a pre-determined list of IP addresses. There are many different lists for different causes, whether you want to block known spyware servers or Microsoft, there will probably be a list for it. You can also get region specific lists, so for example if you live in the USA and want to block all IP addresses coming from France you could do.
You can of course use this type of software like a firewall, you could get a list of known hackers, spammers, spyware servers, trojans and known bad peers which are likely to share anything malicious with you.
Another benefit of using these programs is they have the feature of blocking HTTP addresses too, so not only can you block any incoming connections you can also prevent yourself from browsing onto the wrong website.
This software does of course have its downfalls when been compared to a firewall, for example firewalls are usually smart and are getting updated all the time by a company that focuses on computer security. The lists in an IP filtering software are updated as often as the individual can be bothered. However many are still updated daily.
Gloss