Many companies and organizations have connected their local area networks, wide area networks, and the Internet together in what is commonly referred to as a global area network. While extremely beneficial in terms of communication and access to information, this interconnectivity can expose a company's network and mission critical information to unauthorized entry and access. A firewall is used to prevent unauthorized accesses. Firewalls are security devices used to protect companies from unauthorized access to their servers.
Many companies use firewalls to control access to their networks and proprietary information.
The firewall's role is to ensure that all communication between an organization's network and the Internet conform to the organization's security policies. If you are connecting to the Internet via AOL, MSN, Earthlink, Sympatico, Mindspring, Geocities, Sprynet, Compuserve, Prodigy Internet, or another common service provider, you should not need to configure your Player for use with a firewall. If you are having problems reaching most RealAudio or RealVideo content, contact RealNetworks technical support . In the Port field enter 80. Select OK and close the Windows Media Player.