Types of Firewall Security System
February 11, 2008 – 9:04 amAlthough there are many variations of firewalls, but each has different application. Outlined below are brief descriptions of different firewalls which can help you to determine the type of firewall as per your need.
Desktop Firewall: A desktop firewall is software installed on an operating system to protect a single computer. It is known as a great protection mechanism in case the network firewall is compromised.
Hardware Firewall: A hardware firewall is better known as a hardware device often built into broadband internet routers. A hardware firewall will provide protection to all the computers sharing a common internet connection. However, configuration of a hardware firewall is usually difficult than configuration of a software firewall. A majority of internet routers and firewalls contain a password to let the user control them from the system.
Software Firewall: This is a software package installed on a server operating system which turns the server into a complete firewall. Software firewall is not considered to be reliable as the user may experience security issues of the underlying operating system. These types of software have complex filters to verify the content of the network traffic to ensure proper formatting of the type of traffic.
Commercial Firewall: Commercial firewalls operate in the same way as a Windows Firewall does. Apart from offering extra protection, it also offer control over the way firewall works and information regarding how to configure it. Some companies sell firewall either as a standalone feature or as part of a security suite which includes other protection such as virus scanner.
Free Firewall: Generally, desktop firewalls fall under the category of free firewall. Most of these firewalls run under some form of Linux, FreeBSD, or OpenBSD. They can be used to protect a small to medium size company.
