How to configure firewall on your Mikrotik router to protect your network

The internet is the best gift
to man. It has changed the way we live our lives, giving us the opportunity to
conquer new grounds and set goals that defy geographical locations. The
internet has given collaboration a new face by enabling people in different
continents to work together on any given project. Everyday more devices,
people, and networks are connected to the internet, making it a global village. A village where everything is found- the good, the bad and the ugly.

With the increase in the
number of people with internet access comes increase in the number of treats on
the internet. As you read this, networks are being taken down through denial of
service attacks. Cyber criminals launch attacks from outside of your network
and bring your operations to a halt. While some maybe paid by your direct
competitors to sabotage your services and give them advantage over you, others
do it for ransom.

Whatever the motive behind the
attacks, you can protect your network by simply configuring your router to deny
entry to packets trying to enter your network from outside. The logic behind
the setup works like this: your router will only allow traffics that originated
from within your network to get back into your network through your WAN
interface. It will drop packets that were not sourced from within your network.
If you are the type that access your router from outside of your network, this
setup will deny you access, except you create a rule to allow your IP.

To setup a firewall rule on
your Mikrotik router to deny external attack on your network, do the follow
things:

>> Goto IP 

>> Firewall, and click
on the plus sign

>> The chain should be
set to input

>> Select the interface
connecting to your  ISP as the in interface

>> Click on the action
tab and choose drop.