PC Tools Firewall Plus - Quick Start Guide

PC Tools Firewall Plus is an easy-to-use application that helps protect your privacy by preventing unauthorized individuals on other computers from gaining access to your computer through a network or the Internet.

This Quick Start Guide is designed to get you started using Firewall Plus immediately. When you open Firewall Plus, you are taken to the Main Status & Summary screen. From here, you can access the most common tasks, view a summary of the traffic activity on your system and details of your installation of Firewall Plus.

If Firewall Plus is minimized to the System Tray, double-click its icon to launch the Main Status & Summary screen. Right-click to display the pop-up menu from where you can open, enable/disable Firewall Plus.

Main Status screen

Select an action

This section provides immediate access to the main functions of PC Tools Firewall Plus. Clicking these buttons does the following actions:

Activates or deactivates Firewall Plus' firewall protection features.

Displays the Application Settings screen from where you can configure which applications on your computer are allowed access to the network or the Internet, define the levels of access for each application, and the action that Firewall Plus should take for each access level.

Actions include Allow, Block and Prompt. In Expert User mode, you may define custom rules for applications. The logging settings associated with each application can be modified from this screen.

Displays the Advanced Rules screen from where you can add or modify a range of rules for filtering network packet information for Internet Zones and Trusted Zones (your Local Area Network, shared resources, printers, etc). A packet is a formatted block of information carried across a network or the internet.

NOTE: Rules are processed in the order in which they appear on the Advanced Rules screen.

System Status

This section of the Main Status & Summary screen displays information on the current installation status of PC Tools Firewall Plus, the product registration status and its expiry date, and a summary of current traffic activity. Click the link to view detailed traffic activity.

Navigation

Clicking these buttons on the left of the product interface does the following actions:

	Displays the Main Status & Summary screen. See above.
	Displays the Application Settings screen. See above.
	Displays the Advanced Rules screen. See above.
	Displays the Logs screen which lists all events which have been set to be logged on the Applications Settings and Advanced Rules screens.
	Displays Traffic information, all Active Applications, and details of their Connections.
	Provides access to all Firewall Plus settings, which covers: General settings to specify overall behavior of Firewall Plus and language options. Adapters settings to set adapter zones. Filtering settings from where you can fine tune Firewall Plus' filtering options. User settings to configure whether you are in Normal User or Expert User mode which will determine the extent of information viewable by you.

Smart Update

The Smart Update function can be initiated at any time by clicking the Smart Update link at the top of the product interface. Please be aware that the main Firewall Plus application may close temporarily while updates are downloading and being implemented. If so, Firewall Plus restarts immediately once this process is complete.

Help menu

The Help menu provides access to this Quick Start Guide, as well as relevant Firewall Plus pages on the PC Tools web site and the product About screen.

Detailed online help

The detailed Firewall Online Help is available online. Note: An Internet connection is required to view this documentation.

Licence Agreement

Click here to view the Firewall End User Licence Agreement ("EULA").