Do you know what is firewall? Why is it important and how a firewall works? A firewall is a program that filters the information coming through your internet connection to your computer system. We can also call firewall a software which is used to secure your private network. Firewall works by blocking the unauthorized access from a private network. Mainly firewalls are used to prevent unauthorized web users access to your private networks connected to the internet. Let's get started and have a look at exactly what is firewall and their advantages and compersions between hardware firewall and software firewall.
What Is Firewall
A firewall can be administered with the help of hardware, software or a combination of the two. Firewall can be considered as the first level defense in terms of securing your information. We can see the websites nowadays need to secure their information from external resources and firewall has made it easier for them. Various online shopping websites are also using the firewall concept to secure their data. Few of them are HealthKart, Urban Ladder and Techshop.
What is an application firewall?
You have get the info about what is firewall? Now i am talking about what is an application firewall. Web application firewall is the most widely developed application firewall. An application firewall may be defined as a special type of firewall which is developed for inspecting a particular type of traffic.
What is the difference between a host-based firewall and a network-based firewall?
A host-based firewall is installed on an individual computer to protect it from the unauthorized activities occurring on its network. The policy may also affect what sort of traffic the computer accepts from the Internet or from the local network.
A network-based firewall protects all computers on the internal side of the firewall from all computers on the external side of the firewall and is also administered at a specified point in the network path. Unlike a host-based firewall, a network-based firewall cannot protect one computer from another on the same network or any computer from itself.
What is a web application firewall?
Here is the new info on what is a web application firewall? A web application firewall keeps the actual data in the packet just to see if the requests are being sent to a web server and also if the replies chiming in from the web server are meeting its rules. A web application firewall is not associated with the source and destination address.
Let's take an example stating that a specific URL cannot be 256 characters long. This goes by the rule of the web application firewall itself. If a packet has a longer URL in the request field, it can be dropped without passing it on to the web server.
Comparison between Hardware firewall & Software firewall
1) Hardware firewalls: Hardware firewalls are consolidated into the router that stays between a computer and the Internet. Packet filtering is used up by hardware firewalls and the process includes scanning of pocket headers to determine their source, origin, address and destination followed by checking of the current user defined rules to allow or deny the decision.
Key advantages of hardware firewall
A) Speed: Hardware firewalls deliver greater speed and thus can handle more amount of traffic.
B) Security: Hardware firewalls come up with enhanced security as it comes with their own operating system which reduces the risk of external attacks.
C) No Interference: Hardware firewall is an isolated network component so it can be managed better and does not slow down the other applications which are already running. The firewall can thus be reconfigured without any interfaces.
2) Software firewall: Software firewalls are installed on individual servers. They are used to determine whether the request is valid or not and also intercept each connection request. Server resources are used up by the software firewall. If we ignore the performance limitation, software firewall has other numerous advantages.
I hope you people like the article about what is firewall and how a firewall works, If you need more info about firewall and other technology then you can send me a mail or can ask your question below in the comment box.
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Savita Singh is the author of computergeekblog, She has a superlative knowledge of Graphic and Web designing. She is a part time and award winning tech blogger who loves to write about latest technology, social media and web design. Her blog focuses on creative things of designing and tech, providing professional opinions on designing products, performances and a variety of business.
