In addition to protecting your computer, a firewall captures data on the traffic coming to and from your computer system. Unfortunately, one weakness in current firewall products is the inability to produce meaningful or easily understood reports.

A few tools allow you to analyze firewall data. ClearZone for ZoneAlarm and ClearIce for BlackIce Defender are two product choices.

The data obtained from these tools help you determine the level of threat posed to your system. It also helps you determine who is posing the threat.