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How can a firewall protect my computer?

Source Routing

In most cases, the path that data travels over the Internet (or any other network) is determined by the routers along that path. But the source providing the data can arbitrarily specify the route that the data should travel. This is called "source routing." Hackers sometimes take advantage of this to make information appear to come from a trusted source or even from inside the network! Most firewall products disable source routing as a matter of course.

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