Which Firewall shall i use?

which one is the best for enterprise security ??

Hi good day!

Just an input in which you could try. As I was reading documentation and other forums as well, nowadays, CISCO is the best enterprise routers that anybody would suggest.

But for SOHO-small office and Home use, just an additional tips, nowadays, LINKSYS is the best security option that you could try using-either wired or wireless network.

Well speaking strictly about access control devices the routers from Cisco and Linksys don't do a very good job. They can only do some basic border filtering. However firewalling has evolved to encompass much more than perimeter security, these days standalone firewalls include filtering capabilities at all 7 layers and usually throw in an IDS or two along the way as well. The focus has shifted to trying to provide an 'all in one solution' once again. Something that I feel is a mistake -- and more of a marketting gimmick than anything else.

However nothing beats the performance of a full fledged hardware appliance for filtering. Unfortunately the prices are still prohibitive for most people.

I have been very taken in by some of the newer application firewalls like smoothwall ( www.smoothwall.org ), they are a step in the right direction.. providing the firepower required by small - medium industries at little / no cost, and tremendous ease of use. A whole Smoothwall implementation can be completed within an hour, and believe me it will run just as secure as most other fancy products.

I agree with Sahirh.

If you want a firewall, buy a firewall. If you want a router, buy a router etc. If you get a device that does multiple functions, you are typically going to get average for each function (which may be fine for a small setup).

Linksys is fine for a small network or for a light duty applliance. I prefer SonicWall for my firewall. It is relatively cheap (about $400-$700) for the lower end product (vs about $70 for Linksys and the other commodity products), but it has better features and performance. I am not knocking Linksys (I use quite a few of there products - but I have a SonicWall at my perimeter).

Hi

I dont like that cisco, linksys, checkpoint stuff. I also dont work on them.

Build your own.

1. If you want a tiny one, use 'coyote'.
2. if you want a different one use devil-linux. I like it very much. Did I hear someone saying about routing?, devil-linux has 'zebra' also.
3. Oh!! so you need to embedd & use a GUI, use ipcop.

Why commercial, Why piracy? use your own. Go open source.

Regards
Cheetah

Open source = free as in free speech not as in free beer

There are a number of commercial firewalls available that are open source, Astaro Security Linux, www.astaro.com/ , as I said earlier Smoothwall etc etc.

Unfortunately not everyone can afford to build their own firewall. Its a specialist capability and not given to one days study.. thus they require commercial alternatives and thats a good thing.

If everything were free as in free beer, then programmers would never get paid and nobody would make any software.

Hi Sahirh,

Cannot agree with you Sahirh on two points.

1. Specialists are not born, you have to start some where. So once you start somewhere and follow on the path you eventually become a specialist. Its a matter of choice and some times the 'starting trouble' problem. Once you become a specialist, you contribute to the open source in many ways.

2. I dont want to start a flame here. Good programers will always be paid, whether its open source or not. 'free' as in 'beer' or as 'in speech'

3. BTW, I have not reffered smoothwall before writing this line. But I think whats available in free 'smoothwall' and in commercial is different, than the support.

Regards
Cheetah