A well-designed computer network, like well-designed policy in a federation like Canada, depends on good firewalls. In a computer network, a good firewall alerts users to potential harmful interactions between the computer and the local network, and also between the local . . .
A well-designed computer network, like well-designed policy in a federation like Canada, depends on good firewalls. In a computer network, a good firewall alerts users to potential harmful interactions between the computer and the local network, and also between the local network and the Internet. Similarly, policy in a federation works better when firewalls limit potentially harmful intrusions by higher or external governments, or between governments and transnational organizations.

Good firewalls do not prevent any and all interaction -- rather, they limit unwanted intrusions that have the potential to cause damage. Firewalls can be configured to allow healthy interaction with networks and other computers (e-mail, surfing, exchanging files with known parties), but they also alert the computer user or network -- usually via a pop-up window -- of anything unpleasant.

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