When you open Firewall Plus, you are taken to the Main Status & Summary screen. You can access this screen from anywhere within Firewall Plus by clicking the Status button in the left navigation menu.

This screen provides links to the most frequently used tasks, information on the version of Firewall Plus you are running, and a summary of traffic activity.

Select an Action

This section provides immediate access to the main functions of PC Tools Firewall Plus.

• Firewall Protection : Activates or deactivates PC Tools Firewall Plus' firewall protection features.

• Application Blocking: 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. See Application Filtering.

• Advanced Rules : 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. See Advanced Rules.

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Status and Summary

This section of the displays information about the current installation status of PC Tools Firewall, the product registration status and its expiry date, the status of Spyware Doctor installation, the number of packets sent and received, and a link to view detailed traffic activity.

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Navigation

The left navigation panel is common across all screens and contains links to:

• Status - takes you to the Main Status & Summary screen.
• Applications - displays the Applications Settings screen where you can configure rules for applications.
• Advanced Rules - displays the Advanced Rules screen (for packet or data filtering) where you can configure rules for network/Internet communications.
• History - displays the History screen which lists all events which have been set to be logged on the Application Settings and Advanced Rules screen.
• Activity - displays traffic information, all active applications, and details of their connections.
• About - opens the About screen, which displays the product version and registration status. Note: Prior to registration, this button displays Register Now or Activate Now, which opens the Registration screen when clicked.
• Settings- 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.