Hardware Firewall?

I keep on reading posts with people mentioning Hardware Firewalls, "configuring/enabling the firewall in a broadband modem, ect", what kind of advantage does this have over software firewalls? and is this still recomended even if the user doesnt have wireless enabled?

And should one use the 2 firewalls together, software and hardware?

I dont understand, please enlighten me on the subject!

 

Absolutely even if you don't have wireless enabled.

As much as I dislike Steve Gibson, this is a very good discussion with Leo Laporte. It's a transcript of a "Security Now" podcast http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-003.pdf

To me, this is an absolute must. An inexpensive router which can serve as a hardware firewall is probably the single best investment one can make to prevent threats from the outside. I only trust a software firewall to monitor outbound connections.

 

Thanks for that! Now I just have to figure out how to configure it!

 

The biggest advantage of a hardware firewall is that it's independent of your operating system. Software firewalls in themselves are not weak or vulnerable. The operating system they run on is the weakness. Anything that compromises the operating system can compromise software that's installed on that OS, including a software firewall and other security apps. Hardware firewalls are actually software firewalls, but they are installed on separate hardware with its own OS, usually Linux based. That separate OS doesn't normally contain any user software, which makes it much harder to infiltrate.

Hardware firewalls are not immune to attack, and attacks directed specifically at routers and modems are increasing. Make certain that you change the devices default password before you do anything else, then shut off any features you don't use, especially anything that involves remote access.

Hardware and software firewalls don't conflict with each other. The advice of not using more than one firewall referrs to software firewalls only. More than one software firewall installed on an OS can cause all kinds of unexpected problems.

If you have an older PC laying around, it can be converted into a hardware firewall. Check out Smoothwall.

 

As long as you are behind a firewall with NAT, no incoming packets can get to your computer unless you initiate the connection. That is the biggest advantage of the hardware.

 

Or Check out pfSence