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Firewall-Hardware or Software?

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by rranjan_cn 2 views

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We are a small company and use 2 NT Servers, one as Mail Server & the other as a File & Print Server. We also use a broadband connection and a roaming facility from two separate service providers to access our mails securely while on travel or from home. We don't use any firewall at the moment and are keen to know whether do we need one. If yes, which would be the ideal one - Software or Hardware or a combination of both. Please reply with some technical inputs as well, Thanks.

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by true_texan

The general rule of thumb is: If you have live connection to the Internet which is active most or all of the time - yes you need a firewall.

Which kind depends on how you are set up now. If your connection comes into one computer system, and that computer system acts as a "gateway" for the rest of the computer systems, then a software firewall on that one system would probably work. You might take a look at Norton Firewall.

If your connection comes directly into a switch or router and all of the computer share the Internet through that switch, then you probably need a hardware firewall. You might contact the vendor for the equipment you already have. You may be able to upgrade to a model having firewall protection.

Hope this helps.

by mckaytech

My opinion is that *every* broadband connection should have a firewall of some type.

Generally for a small business, I recommend either a hardware device (either a commercial broadband router/firewall like the Linksys product or a Linux-based router assembled from PC hardware). The commercial products have the advantage of easy setup and configuration but the Linux-based router/firewalls are much more configurable and can add all sorts of additional functionality including bandwidth monitoring, acting as a VPN server, establishing a DMZ for outside servers, etc.

Either one can be established for little more than $100 USD and at that price, it's difficult to justify not having one.

paul

by cavedweller

Regardless of your choice of hardware or software (I prefer hardware) I would make my firewall a seperate box. This minimizes "leakage" between applications and the outside world. With a software firewall running on the same platform as your mail or web server you could accidentally expose yourself by bypassing the firewall (with configuration mistakes or a poorly-written application). Also, someone attacking your firewall still hasn't gotten to your mail/web/files, etc..

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