Outgoing Access - Why?

[violethill]

Hi:

New to computer virus protection software, and I've a firewall question (probably a silly one) that I can't seem to find the answer to in the Help Search area:

What is "outgoing access" and why would I want a program to routinely speak to something else outside of my computer about what I'm doing?  I can understand the need for my computer to respond to information coming in about updates and so forth, but I'm unclear about this. 

Specifically, what reason would there be for my Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator programs (merely "craft tools" per se on my desktop hard drive) to ever communicate "out" to Adobe?  Am I safe in "blocking" these programs and simply using them as the tools they are?  For example, when it comes to my circular saw, I'm not telling Black and Decker what I'm building or how the saw is running when it's running fine. . .(is that a good analogy, or not?).

Finally, what does "full access" mean?  Is that "outgoing" and "incoming" access allowed?  Is there some other aspect to "full access" that is not being explained to me?

Thanks!

[exbrit]

My advice is to leave the firewall settings as they are as the default settings work best.

It's all explained in the user interface if you click Help at the top right, then Helkp on the next page.   Scroll down to Personal Firewall then Manage Personal Firewall Security Settings.

[violethill]

Hi Peter:

Thanks so much for the quick reply.

The first thing I did was go to the user interface - to the Personal Firewall / Manage Personal Firewall Security Settings, which did explain what these things were (i.e., that "Outgoing access. . .allows programs only to send information.").

My question is not "what" it does, it's "why" should I allow those programs on my computer that are simply tools to send information to anyone without my knowing what they're sending, and will "blocking" these tool programs from sending such information have any security repercussions?

In short, what harm, if any, is there in blocking most "tool" programs (like Photoshop) from unilaterally sending out information that I'm unaware of?  

The McAfee Help section doesn't tell me that, and I don't want to spend a lot of time measuring the validity of different search engine answers when I suppose I can get the straight line here in the McAfee room. 

Thanks!

[exbrit]

Probably because, like the McAfee interface, they are controlled from a database on the web for updating and other information.  The McAfee user interface uses Internet Explorer for instance.  If software has permission in the firewall there's a reason for it.  if you start blocking things or put the firewall into stealth for instance, then everything will pester you constantly asking for access.