When we purchase an antivirus tool, we often look at the ability of the software to scan and remove threats.
It is the active protection that we often look at and we sometimes forget that the more passive feature of a firewall can be just as important.
The firewall does not seem to perform an active role in weeding out threats but in the background of your system, if you do have a firewall, it is working actively to screening unauthorized traffic in and out of your computer.
Having a good firewall would mean that the type of signals that are sent from dubious locations to attempt to test the weakness of our system are prevented from even entering into the system.
This will also stop viruses from entering into our system in the first place, negating even the possibility of scanning and removal.
A good firewall will also allow only authorized traffic to leave into our system.
This is important as there could be friendly or unfriendly applications which were installed together with our other software during setup.
We do not want any of our personal data being published unless we give explicit approval and so a strong firewall to prevent both inflow and outflow of data is important.
When you are shopping for an antivirus, you should also take note of the capabilities of the firewall.
Do not underestimate the importance of the firewall, it is your last line of defense against losing your personal privacy.
And a strong firewall is possible to help overcome any shortfall in the main antivirus software.