Judging by the increased number of hacking attacks directed towards small to medium-sized businesses, it is only wise to consider looking for ways to keep your corporate network safe. As a small business owner, one of the ways by which you can hacker-proof your corporate network is by having a robust firewall. Are you like scores of small business owners who often wonder what a firewall is and how it works? Wonder no more. In this article, an expert Orange County managed IT services provider explains how exactly a firewall works and further points out why you must consider having one for your firm.
What is a Firewall?
Think of a firewall as a filter whose purpose is to filter or sieve the network traffic coming into and leaving your firm’s corporate network.
How Do Firewalls Work?
Firewalls use inclusive and exclusive parameters to determine what information can be let in and what needs to be quarantined. Using these parameters, your firewall can choose the information to all and what to disallow. It uses an access control list, which your Orange County managed IT services provider can tailor to include guidelines that will either allow or prevent access to your corporate network.
What Kind of Firewalls are Available in the Market?
Basically, firewalls can be divided into two categories:
- Software firewalls – These are programs that are installed in your machines and they depend on your operating system to block threats.
- Hardware firewalls – These are physical devices that serve to arrest the threat long before it gains access to your network.
So, which is better?
Hardware firewalls are far much better than software firewalls because they scan incoming traffic to find threats. Most Irvine IT support provider categorize hardware firewalls as network level, circuit level, and application level firewalls.
Parting Shot
Interested to learn more about this topic? Then don’t hesitate to contact us at Advanced Networks — we are your trusted Orange County managed IT services provider.
