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*Hardware firewalls are typically built within the infrastructure of broadband routers and are a very important part of a network setup especially on a broadband connection. A hardware firewall can be very effective with minimal or no configuration and can guard every machine on the local network. It uses packet filtering to check a packet’s header for source and destination details, which information is then compared with a set of pre defined security rules. The packet will be forwarded if it meets the rules or otherwise dropped. Although any user with some computer knowledge could plug in to the hardware firewall and have it work by adjusting a few settings, there are specific features of the firewall that need some skills to be optimally configured for security. Also, the hardware firewall has to be tested to ascertain that it meets the defined security rules and this cannot be done by any ordinary user.
*Software firewalls are simply software programs installed on computers to filter traffic in and out of that computer. They are a very popular firewall choice especially with home users with a few home computers. Software firewalls basically protect computers from common threats such as unauthorized access to a computer, email worms, common Trojans and other forms of malicious software. Most of these firewalls provide user defined controls that allow the set up of secure file sharing as well as peripherals like printers or scanners and block suspicious applications from running on the machine. As an add-on, software firewalls may have controls for privacy settings and web filtering. The major disadvantage of this type of firewall is that it will only protect the particular machine on which it is installed rather than an entire network, requiring each computer to have a firewall installed don it. There is a range of software firewalls to choose from, depending on your security needs but a good software firewall is one that will always run in the background on your system while utilizing limited resources
