Microsoft® Windows® XP Unleashed

Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall and Internet Connection Sharing

A firewall is a fireproof barrier between connected rooms or buildings that is intended to help keep a fire from spreading from one to the other. In networking, a firewall serves a similar purpose. Since you are connecting your computer to literally millions of other computers when you connect to the Internet, you need to have some mechanism in place to protect your computer from malicious users, viruses, and other bad things that lurk on the net. The ICF that comes with Windows XP is a flexible means of protecting your computer when you connect to the Internet.

Internet connection sharing allows you to use one computer to make the Internet connection; it then allows other ...