Security & Firewall Features
Firewalls used to consist of simple mechanisms to controlling access into and out of the company. Traditional firewall techniques such as port blocking and NAT still play a massive part; however on their own they do not have the in depth power to stopping today’s threats. The primary job of a firewall is to protect the company’s network from internet threats and to enforce company security policies. The security policy will dictate what applications, services, ports and IP addresses are allowed and disallowed via the firewall. Companies are in need of firewall's that do not only consist of advanced protection tools, but also have other built in advanced capabilities for other uses, such as VPN’s, WAN Optimisation, Failover and high availability, VLAN support, Dynamic routing, logging and reporting and other very handy utilities.
Choosing a firewall can be a daunting task when you look at the vast amount of firewalls on the market. Do you go with a market leader firewall from Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto and Checkpoint paying £10,000 more for a brand name, or do you purchase a cheaper firewall which is still playing catch up and has not really had enough coverage and reviews in the world of security. Also when you take into consideration that this product will be the main entrance point to and from your company you have to ensure you have chosen a solid firewall with a proven reputation.
An example to choosing the correct firewall would be when choosing the correct door for your property. For example if you were to purchase a door, which door would you invest in? Would you invest in a door made out of solid material, which is heavy duty and bullet proof from a world class manufacturer with promising reviews and references, or do you choose a door from your local DIY shop which looks the part but is actually hollow in the middle, comes with weak hinges, built from cheap material and comes with a warded lock which is very easy to circumvent. Then there's door manufacturers that sit in the middle such as a door that has been promised to provide good security but have not really been put to the test and no independent references exist for the door manufacturer, and when you question the manufacturer of the door and question their marketing on the door claiming it meets certain security standards, you find that these tests were internally tested from the developers themselves and not from a third party known reviewer.
Firewall's come with different techniques to stopping many of today’s threats and come in different platforms and setup methods depending on the environment they will accommodate. This is why you need to spend some time researching each firewall, what you and your company require from a firewall and carefully choosing the right firewall for your company based on a balance of a number of aspects such as reputation of the vendor and the overall cost of the product.
In particular if your looking for a home based firewall, then visit Home Firewall Guide. For recommendations on network firewall vendors for your business or company, visit Which Network Firewall Guide, or for a general buyers guide on network firewalls visit Network Firewall Buyers Guide.
If your looking for a security package for your home or business computer/s you may be better off with a Full Internet Security Suite, which consists of a firewall, anti-virus software as well as other security features.
For further reading, there's some excellent electronic ebooks available for download from eBooks.com