Security software that can actively block unauthorized entities from gaining access to internal resources such as systems, servers, databases, and networks. A firewall may also act to prevent internal users from accessing unauthorized external resources. A firewall is installed in a communications router, server, or some other device that physically and/or logically is a first point of access into a networked system. A packet-filtering firewall examines all data packets, forwarding or dropping individual packets based on predefined rules that specify where a packet is permitted to go, in consideration of both the authenticated identification of the user and the originating address of the request. A proxy firewall acts as an intermediary for user access requests by setting up a second connection to the resource. The proxy then decides if the message or file is safe. A stateful inspection firewall examines packets, notes the port numbers that they use for each connection, and shuts down those ports once the connection is terminated. See also authentication, authorization, proxy firewall, and security.