Firewall debate....

timm_2

Fellow techies - you know when something which should be perfectly within your own expertise causes you secret agony? Well, here's mine...

Home network (infrastructure) with hardware firewall enabled (mediumish level of security selected) on the wireless router. The question - do you also have a software Firewall enabled on the PC's on the network, or is this just needless complication?

Your views? - Discuss? (hate it when people use that expression, reminds me of A-Levels).

MrsTinks

I would say a software firewall should not add complications and yes I would have one This is what I do for a living and I have both a hardware and a software firewall so I'd say have both
A lot of hardware firewalls don't get updates or if they do it's infrequent but software firewalls are updated so havign both gives you the best of both worlds IMHO.

As always unless you configure them correctly then they are useless no matter how many you have and one correctly configured firewall would always be better than any number of badly set up firewalls

wolfman

Good point by tine, a network is only as secure as the user makes or configures it.

I would always go with a software firewall as a second line of defense. It's a small overhead that can offer valuable protection.

- Outbound protection (leak protection - stop keyloggers, trojans etc... "phoning" home)
- Work on a per application basis. A hardware firewall can merely only block or allow a port.
- Provide internal protection. A router firewall will only block external attacks.

Many will argue that anti-spyware, and anti-virus will protect you from any outbound nasties. This however, can be a dangerous approach as spyware/av is very much a cat and mouse game, the threat is created first then the fix follows.

If you want a decent, free software firewall you can't go wrong with Sunbelt Kerio Firewall, Sygate Firewall, or ZoneAlarm. I personally use Kerio as it's light and easy to use/configure.

A hardware firewall combined with a software firewall is a very effective combination as you're getting the best of both worlds (hardware/software) and is something I'll always recommend.

wiraone

Well said wolfman, though I've never in need of any software firewall other than the standard that came with WinXP or Linux + a good anti-virus software (I'm using McAfee but surely some of you don't recommend it at all.. been using it for a year and no virus/worm ever visited my PC .. just lucky I guess ).

Bob63

I used to specialise in Internet security, designing firewall complexes for banks and other commercial insitutions. A colleague of mine still does this, only much better than I ever did. He produced this video a while back which explains why layered security (multiple lines of defence) is both a good idea and a very old idea. It is great to watch.

http://www.crypticide.com/dropsafe/articles/security/post20060106203741.html

Mike