What is Firewall?
In this article, we will be showing the Advantages and Disadvantages of a Firewall. Finally from this article, you will know the pros and cons of using a firewall.
Advantages of Firewall
- Traffic monitor
- Protection against malware
- stop Hackers
- Control Access
- Privacy
- Easy Installiation
Traffic monitor
A vast responsibility of a firewall is to monitor the traffic passing through it. Whatever the information traveling through a network is in the form of packets. The firewall inspects each of these packets for any hazardous threats. If any chance the firewall happens to find them it will immediately block them.
Protection against malware
Malware especially the type Trojans are dangerous to a user. A Trojan silently sits on your computer spying over all the works you do with it. Whatever information they gather will be sent to a web server. Obviously, you will not know their presence until the strange behaviors of your computer. A firewall in this instance will immediately block Trojans before they cause any damages to your system
stop Hackers
Hackers on the internet always search for computers in order for carrying out their illegal activities. When the hackers happen to find such computers they will start to do even malicious activities such as spreading viruses. Apart from those hackers there can be unknown people such as the neighbors looking out for an open internet connection. Therefore, to prevent such intrusions it is a good idea to be with firewall security.
Control Access
Firewalls come with an access policy that can be implemented for certain hosts and services. Some hosts can be exploited by attackers. So the best case is to block such hosts from accessing the system. If a user feels that they need protection from these types of unwanted access, this access policy can be enforced.
Privacy
Privacy is one of the major concerns of a user. Hackers constantly lookout for privacy information for getting clues about the user. But by using a firewall many of the services offered by a site such as the domain name service and the finger can be blocked. Hence, the hackers are with no chance of getting privacy details. Additionally, firewalls can block the DNS information of the site system. Due to this the names and the IP address will not be visible to the hackers.
Easy Installiation
The installation process of a software firewall is quite simple and you can do it without any professional guidance. Moreover, there are some tutorials available on the internet which helps in learning the complete process in detail. Modern Operating systems like Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 come with pre-installed firewalls. however, the hardware firewall is difficult to install and maintain to access them we need to take professional advice.
Disadvantages of Firewall
- User limitation
- Cost
- Performance
- Malware Attacks
- Complexity
User limitation
There is no doubt that firewalls prevent unauthorized access to your system from the network. While this can be advantageous for an average user, this can actually be a problem for large organizations. The policies used by the firewall cab be strict enough to prevent employees from doing certain operations. As a result of this, the overall productivity of the company can affect severely. Sometimes this can also prompt employees from using backdoor exploits. However, this can lead to security problems since the data traveled through these backdoor exploits are not examined properly.
Cost
Firewalls do have an investment depending on the type of it. In general hardware, firewalls are more expensive than software firewalls. Besides, those hardware firewalls require installations and maintenance which can be costly. These types of configurations do not work without an expert IT employee. Comparing this to a software firewall, there is not much investment and it is easy enough for an average user to deploy them.
Performance
Firewalls especially software-based have the capability to limit your computer’s overall performance. The processing power and the RAM resources are some of the factors which decide the computer’s overall performance. When the software firewalls constantly run in the background they consume more processing power and the RAM resources. This can lead to diminished system performance. However, hardware firewalls do not impact the system performance since they do not rely upon computer resources.
Malware Attacks
Even though firewalls have the capability to block the basic types of trojans, it is proved to be defenseless against other types of malware. These types of malware can enter your system in the form of trusted data. Therefore, even if you have a firewall, it is still recommended to have anti-malware software installed on your PC. Because the only way to remove them is through an anti-malware scan.
Complexity
Even though for small businesses the firewall maintenance is made easy, it is definitely not for large organizations. Firewalls for large organizations require a separate set of staff for operating them. These people make sure that the firewall is safe enough to protect the network from intruders.
Conclusion
So, we explained the Advantages and Disadvantages of Firewall and we hope you enjoy the reading of it and you can share this article with your friends and colleagues to learn more about Firewalls.