What is a hardware firewall??

[khattam_]

What is a hardware firewall??
Why do we need it??
How does it differ from software firewall??
Is it necessary if I use a standalone computer directly connected to the internet via Broadband/Dial-Up??

 

[technovice]

hey man khattam
i googled these links

*www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Hardware_Software/2004/firewall_types.asp

*www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/webmaster/article.php/3103431

hope it helps

 

[prathap_lab]

hi,
hardware firewalls are like firmwares which are loaded on to the hardware. they need not require extra software firewalls to work properly. many routers have hardware firewalls.

if you are a broadband user then a firewall is recomended. a software firewall is enough.

for which firewall is good see this link

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17410

thank you.

 

[khattam_]

hi,
hardware firewalls are like firmwares which are loaded on to the hardware. they need not require extra software firewalls to work properly. many routers have hardware firewalls.

if you are a broadband user then a firewall is recomended. a software firewall is enough.

for which firewall is good see this link

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17410

thank you.

hehe
check out my post on the same page about the software firewalls I've tested.................

 

[prathap_lab]

hi,
sorry did not notice it before.

thank you.

 

[khattam_]

I was askin about HW firewalls............. Any ideas??

 

[digen]

What is a hardware firewall??
Why do we need it??
How does it differ from software firewall??
Is it necessary if I use a standalone computer directly connected to the internet via Broadband/Dial-Up??

I beg to differ from some earlier posts so here I go.
1.Hardware firewall is often considered as a appliance which comes with proprietary Operating system, features which you wont find in the software class like SPI,DMZ & ofcourse ACL[Access Control Lists] etc,Cisco PIX Firewall comes to mind.But some may even point out that a machine running specifically to monitor traffic may be called as a hardware firewall.

2.Let me ask you something first,Why does anyone use a software firewall? To protect the inside from the outside.I would assume you are using a software firewall ton similar lines usually when the requirement is huge or if the need is there hardware firewalls find their place in large insitutes,organisations etc.This doesnt mean you cant use a hardware firewall at home or a SOHO,but investing in 40k odd appliance firewall wont do a justice to its price will it?
Its a different breed totally,for the rest of your questions you may find this thread useful *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13139&highlight=firewalls
I hope you got the answers well & clear.

 

[pradeep_chauhan]

I too differ on this account. A hardware fire wall is a piece of hardware that is capable of filtering the data stream based on some pre fixed rules. This hardware may / may not run a propritory OS. A 486 with bsd/linux and two interfaces is a HW firewall It does not mean that the system cannot do any thing else one can use it to check mail but then its not being utilised regularly for that. So I would term a HW firewall as a dedicated piece of hardware optimised for the role of filtering based on a set of rules.

 

[digen]

Yeah agree mate I kinda missed it in my post.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Digen is absolutely right.

A dedicated firewall is typically used in large corporates, cost something like a kidney or two put together , support a huge number of users, give VPN support, et cetera. Examples would the the Cisco PIX series, although I kind of tend to favor the Symantec like the Symantec Gateway Security 5400 series featured here (no specific reason for this though)

*enterprisesecurity.symantec.com/products/products.cfm?productid=133

Also, there these gadgets called router cum firewalls (SPI and NAT or both). These are not pure hardware firewalls (using the above description), but in a way they are hardware based rather than depending on the PC environment (which I would rather term as Software Personal firewall -examples being XP's inbuilt firewall, Sygate Personal/Pro, etc.). Please note that these routers cum firewalls (hardware-based firewalls if you would prefer calling them) do their job fine for the SOHO user and may cost you around Rs 3000/-

NVidia have actually implemented the same technology (hardware-based firewalls) in the nforce3 250gb and nforce ultra series of chipsets bring huge value to these desktop products.

What Pradeep described, I am not sure if I could call it a hardware solution, but I guess he is right. I am not much of a Linux person.

Why do we need it??

Personally, I have found it very nifty in a small business environment. First, I don't need to keep the PC connected to the Internet/running the proxy servers on (save electricity bills), especially when no one is working on that PC. Secondly if the router-cum-hardware-based firewall has good filtering features and provides DMZ for my own personal rig (selfish me) , I don't need to spend extra money on a good Internet sharing software (that does not come free)

Guys, do correct me if I am wrong on any counts.

DH.

Addendum

The routers-cum-firewalls (or hardware-based firewalls if you prefer) I have used from SMC and Linksys have a lot of nifty features:
* SPI
* NAT
* Access Control
* MAC Filter (so that only PCs/notebooks whose MAC's are entered can access the network)
* URL Blocking (by site, keywords)
* DMZ
* Intrusion Detections (Detections are automatically emailed to my email address)

I would say pretty neat for the price I paid for them.

DH