Which type of firewall is best for your enterprise?

Network firewalls deliver an important layer of security to your business. It acts as a wall to the outside network and covers the internal network from undesirable and unauthorized actions. A firewall delivers a security solution to the devices attached to the enterprise server. These machines can be hardware or software in nature.

The primary purpose of the network firewall is to save the company network from incoming external networks. There are two networks known in the organization; the internal and external networks. The internal network is created at the company level, and the external network is the network that is out of the internal network. Here we will explore the different types of firewalls in particular.

What is a firewall?

According to Norton, “A firewall is a protection device in the form of computer software or hardware. It can assist protect your network by working as an intermediate between your internal network and outside traffic. It monitors tries to achieve access to your operating system and blocks undesirable incoming traffic and unrecognized sources”.

A firewall only qualifies authenticated traffic to enter a private business network. A firewall can be hardware, software, or a combination of both and work as the foremost line of defense against malicious attacks. A physical or hardware firewall authorize only authenticated webs to enter the private network.

What are the two primary types of firewalls?

There are two kinds of firewalls: hardware and software firewall. Both the firewalls are controlled remotely and with the use of software. The installation of software firewalls is created on individual products or devices. It assists to prevent the entry of different applications and blocks outsider networks to cover the internal networks from malicious attacks.

A software firewall is costly as it uses the (CPU) central processing unit and RAM (Random access memory) of the devices on which they are installed. Supervisors must control and configure them individually.

Hardware firewalls are physical devices including all the computing resources. They act as walls between internal networks and the external Internet. They handle the data traffic from unauthorized networks and ban them from entering the company network. A hardware firewall is the most suitable security solution for a company with many machines on the same web as it will stop the viruses before they get to any endpoints.

Different kinds of firewalls

In computing, the firewall has a total of five varieties:

• Packet filtering firewall
• Circuit-level gateway
• Stateful inspection firewall
• Application-level gateway (proxy firewall)
• Next-generation firewall (NGFW)

Packet Filtering Firewall

The format of a packet filtering firewall is easy. It is the primary and the oldest firewall in computing. These firewall uses to contain the data traffic for its source and destination IPs. These firewalls also help prevent undesirable and unauthorized webs from the source port, destination port, and protocols. Packet filtering firewalls are used to scan every packet independently without understanding its last record of selected connections. Hence, this creates firewalls limited in their performing capacity against viruses.

Circuit-Level Gateways

Circuit-level gateway is somehow equal to a packet filtering firewall. Like the packet filtering firewall, with very few resources, they serve the single review activity. While performing at the session layer demonstrates TCP (Transmission Connection Protocol) to keep the way of active sessions. Moreover, the primary purpose of this firewall is to choose the security of specified connections.

Circuit-level gateways are easy, cost-effective, and can affect network implementation. However, they deliver incomplete security solutions as they cannot review the content of the data packets. Therefore, malware inside the information packets can efficiently avoid the circuit-level gateway, and hence, another type of firewall is configured.

Stateful Inspection Firewalls

Stateful inspection firewalls have some different characteristics than circuit-level gateways. They maintain track of established relationships and complete data packet checks to provide security. Stateful inspection firewalls work on goal and source IPs by making a form table. Instead, they create their directives to allow entering traffic relying on a hardcoded set of regulations based on the data.

Application-Level Gateways (Proxy Firewalls)

Application-level gateways or Proxy firewalls are connected to the application layer with a proxy device. It allows catching the opposing network coming from outside before joining the enterprise network. Moreover, if the customer desires to enter the network, he must transmit a request. Hence, the proposal is then passed through the proxy firewall. And if the bid gets confirmed, it forwards to one of the internal devices.

Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW)

Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) presents additional security elements to overcome the hurdles. Traditional firewalls have some limitations and cannot deliver complete security to information packets; hence, to overcome this, the next- generation firewalls come into the image. Therefore, it is the single solution for many security problems. Therefore, with NGFW, the security version won’t impact and provide the best service.

According to Gartner, “Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) are deep-packet review firewalls that move beyond port/protocol inspection and blocking to add intrusion prevention, application-level inspection, and getting brightness from outside the firewall. An NGFW should not be confused with a stand-alone web intrusion prevention system (IPS), which contains a commodity or non-enterprise firewall, or a firewall and IPS in the same appliance that is not near integrated”.

Another important part of the next-generation firewall is an in-depth inspection to detect viruses and malware. Further, the quality of intelligent traffic and other resource analysis process allows for doing the inspection. Hence, the attacks such as DDoS are blocked with the use of NGFW.

The application for NGFW firewalls is best suited for businesses that want more security choices in a single solution. Therefore, businesses must pay more money for such firewalls, and the administration must configure them with other security systems.

Which type of firewall is best for your business?

Every organization requires the best security solutions for its network. But it is impossible to get a single key with a one-size-fits-all that can complete all the security needs. Different types of firewalls have some advantages and some rules. For an instant, a Packet filtering firewall has limited security, and it is an easy type of firewall. Therefore, application-level gateway and stateful-level gateway firewalls can compromise the security arrangement.

But the next-generation firewall (NGFW) is a total package of all the solutions. The security version is very good, but this requires a high budget. Moreover, businesses with a big budget for network security can use a next-generation firewall.

As the number of attackers grows every day, organizations need to enhance their security classes. A single firewall cannot handle all the security performance problems and may show network harm. Hence, a single firewall is not sufficient to protect your organization’s internal network.

Conclusion

In conclusion, among all the types of firewalls, the next-generation firewall is the group of many security solutions. It integrates multiple elements of other firewalls and delivers the best network version. It offers a wider and deeper security solution for businesses that requires the best different security solutions for their private network.