About Winsock 2; Configuring Mcafee Firewall - McAfee OFFICE 3.1 User Manual

McAfee Firewall
Some network communications are needed to maintain network-based
services. These are managed through user defined rules under the SYSTEM
button feature of McAfee Firewall. The default SYSTEM settings feature
provides protection from hostile threats.
In addition, during the installation process, it will prompt you with some basic
questions to set up McAfee Firewall to do specific tasks, according to your
needs (e.g. allow sharing of files or not).

About Winsock 2

McAfee Firewall uses an API (Application Programming Interface) that is not
supported by versions of Winsock prior to v2.0. McAfee Firewall checks for
the presence of Winsock 2 during the installation procedure and will inform
you if the system does not have it. If you have the latest browser (e.g., Internet
Explorer 5), this component is already built-in and you will not receive this
prompt. Otherwise, you can get a free upgrade and is available from
http://www.microsoft.com as well as other Web sites.

Configuring McAfee Firewall

The configuration of McAfee Firewall is divided into two parts—application
and system. Upon installation, a base set of rules for system services such as
ICMP, DHCP and ARP is installed (these are considered default settings). The
applications part is personalized. Whenever you run a new program that
attempts to communicate over the Internet, McAfee Firewall will prompt you
whether you trust the program or not.
For example, using the Netscape Web browser, enter a Web address or the
Uniform Resource Locator in the location bar and then press ENTER. Netscape
will attempt to connect to that URL over the Internet. The first time you do this,
McAfee Firewall prompts if you "trust" Netscape. If you say "Yes", McAfee
Firewall notes Netscape is allowed and whenever you use Netscape in the
future, McAfee Firewall will allow Netscape traffic.
Behind the scenes, McAfee Firewall creates a rule allowing Netscape to
communicate to the specific URL you have indicated and then deletes the rule
once all traffic is received or once you exit Netscape. Additionally, when
trojans on your system try to communicate out from your PC, McAfee Firewall
will also prompt you whether you trust them or not, and the decision to stop
trojans is easy and instantaneous.
136 McAfee Office