Are you searching for the right firewall setup to protect your business from potential threats?
Understanding how firewalls work helps you decide on the best solution. This article explains the types of firewalls, allowing you to make an educated choice.
What is a Firewall?
A firewall is a security device that monitors network traffic. It protects the internal network by filtering incoming and outgoing traffic based on a set of established rules. Setting up a firewall is the simplest way of adding a security layer between a system and malicious attacks.
How Does a Firewall Work?
A firewall is placed on the hardware or software level of a system to secure it from malicious traffic. Depending on the setup, it can protect a single machine or a whole network of computers. The device inspects incoming and outgoing traffic according to predefined rules.
Communicating over the Internet is conducted by requesting and transmitting data from a sender to a receiver. Since data cannot be sent as a whole, it is broken up into manageable data packets that make up the initially transmitted entity. The role of a firewall is to examine data packets traveling to and from the host.
What does a firewall inspect? Each data packet consists of a header (control information) and payload (the actual data). The header provides information about the sender and the receiver. Before the packet can enter the internal network through the defined port, it must pass through the firewall. This transfer depends on the information it carries and how it corresponds to the predefined rules.
For example, the firewall can have a rule that excludes traffic coming from a specified IP address. If it receives data packets with that IP address in the header, the firewall denies access. Similarly, a firewall can deny access to anyone except the defined trusted sources. There are numerous ways to configure this security device. The extent to which it protects the system at hand depends on the type of firewall.
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