What to Look for When Buying a Firewall
Unfortunately, the Internet is not a safe place. Whether you’re using a desktop or laptop, you’ve got to be protected (insert obvious condom comedic reference here). People spend big bucks on security and firewalls to thwart attackers. Think back to Harrison Ford in the movie of the same name, that was an extreme case but just the same, your firewall is your first level of protection.
A correctly configured firewall will keep out most baddies and people intending harm to your system. At the office, it can keep you from visiting “undesirable” web pages like pornography or wasting time on Facebook – called content filtering – or keep out jerks who want to hijack the company website for there own amusement. At home, issues can be just as potentially harmful with intruders spying on your personal information.
When you employ firewall software or hardware, think of it as a dual-duty operation. On one hand it blocks traffic to your system, and the other allows traffic, both based on the rule set you’ve provided.
For the general user, the terms can be daunting, especially when trying to avoid security risks. Do I want it embedded? Who is this SOHO person? I thought that was a city in New York? At a basic level, there’s the simple broadband router that screens content – like packet filtering.
Netgear WGR614 802.11g Wireless Router with 4-Port Switch: $31.46
A level up would be a system that inspects the new content and checks it against content that’s previously been approved or accepted. To be most secure, though, the proxy server is preferred.
This guy changes outbound and inbound IP addresses and then compares them against the given rule set for admittance so there’s no “direct” traffic.
Basically, you want to find something that complements your network, is manageable and affordable. Most use the stateful inspection and proxy method and will walk you through installation. You want to look at how many users you have, less users = less RAM. You want NAT capabilities, which most will have. If you’ll be streaming, you want a VPN. And you want it the ability to log as many different events (by IP address, date, time, domain name, etc.) as possible with different content filters. Most importantly, ask questions.
Even with these access limitations, clicking on the wrong webpage or opening an undesirable file can cause havoc with your system. That’s why it’s advisable to implement programs like Norton Anti-Virus and Spybot as support to your firewall defense.
Norton Antivirus 2009: $14.95
That way, you can probably avoid most compromises to your system from intruders, spyware and viruses.
Find at Smarter.com: Shop for firewall hardware and security software.
