John W. Colby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue Dec 7 11:13:00 CST 2004
In fact a hardware firewall usually does everything that a software firewall does, plus more. It is unusual for example for software firewalls to do stateful packet inspection. Doing so is extremely processor intensive. A good hardware firewall has a co-processor out in the router that does that stuff and offloads the workstation from doing that. IF you have a good hardware firewall, and the cheaper routers are NOT firewalls or are very limited firewalls, then you truly do not need a software firewall. I know of nothing that a software firewall does that a good hardware firewall cannot be made to do. Furthermore, the hardware firewall can be made to do it for ALL workstations at one fell swoop, vs. having to write rules and get them applied to each and every workstation's software firewall. I am NOT recommending that everyone out there get rid of their zonealarm. I am saying however that if you spend the bucks on a good router with a good hardware firewall built into it, and you set it up correctly, then you can safely get rid of Zonealarm (or whatever you use). John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause: http://folding.stanford.edu/ -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Mitsules, Mark Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 12:03 PM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Subject: RE: [dba-Tech] Software Firewalls Arthur, I concur with Bobby. Regardless of Drew's feelings on the subject, or for that matter Bryan's situation, I believe a software firewall like ZoneAlarm DOES serve its purpose very well. Using ZoneAlarm, NOTHING can access the internet or conversely allow connections FROM the internet unless you SPECIFICALLY grant it that right. Different strokes and all that...ymmv. Mark -----Original Message----- From: Bobby Heid [mailto:bheid at appdevgrp.com] Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 3:59 PM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Subject: RE: [dba-Tech] Software Firewalls No, a software firewall can help with apps "phoning home". I run both. Bobby -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 3:50 PM To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Software Firewalls Stupid question of the month (perhaps)... Given that I have a LinkSys router, is any additional software firewall redundant? Arthur > > -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.289 / Virus Database: 265.4.6 - Release Date: 12/5/2004 _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com