Section 89. Turn On the Firewall

89. Turn On the Firewall

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

87 About BlackBerry Security

SEE ALSO

5 Lock and Unlock Your Device

6 Password-Protect Your Device

88 Secure the SIM Card

90 Protect Your Content

You are probably already familiar with the concept of a firewall , which is a hardware and/or software layer that limits access to a network or computer. If you're using a desktop or notebook computer on a corporate intranet, you might already be accustomed to operating behind a firewall. The firewall feature built in to your BlackBerry serves a slightly different purpose than a traditional network firewall. The BlackBerry firewall serves to notify you when a third-party application makes an attempt to communicate over the wireless network.

The idea behind the BlackBerry firewall is that you are notified each time an application on your device attempts to access the wireless network, so in a way you serve as the manual gatekeeper for network access. You might view this as a hindrance, which is why the firewall feature is turned off by default. On the other hand, you might welcome such security if you don't regularly use third-party applications that access the network. The purpose of the BlackBerry firewall isn't to limit access to your device from outside, as you might expect from a traditional firewall.

89. Turn On the Firewall

1.	Open the Tools Screen Scroll to the Tools icon on the Home screen and click the trackwheel. The Tools screen appears, displaying a list of tool options.
2.	Open the Settings Screen Scroll to the Settings icon and click the trackwheel. A list of options for which you can change the settings appears.
3.	Open the Firewall Screen Scroll to the Firewall option in the list of settings and click the trackwheel. The Firewall screen opens.
4.	Enable the Firewall The Firewall screen is surprisingly sparse, including only a single option for enabling and disabling the firewall feature. To enable the firewall feature, double-click the trackwheel and select Enabled from the pop-up menu that appears. Click to confirm the selection. TIP To quickly change an option without having to go through the two trackwheel clicks required to open a menu and select Change Option , press the Alt key to view a list of options. Then scroll to the desired choice and click the trackwheel to select it. An even faster shortcut involves cycling to the next available choice by pressing the Space key.
5.	Exit and Save Changes Press the Escape button to exit the Firewall screen. If you changed the firewall setting, you are prompted to save or discard changes. When prompted, scroll the trackwheel to the Save option and click to save the changes. You then are returned to the Settings screen. Press the Escape button twice to navigate back to the Home screen, or just press the End key once.