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Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2
Israel G. Lugo, Don Parker

The concept of a firewall still brings to mind the picture of an impenetrable brick wall, the unsurpassable magic protector of all that is good. The bold statements made by today's security vendors only emphasize this, with claims of complete and automatic security, with a wall able to block all perils dead in their tracks using logic that perhaps didn't exist two years ago. But what if in reality the wall of the firewall is made of straw?

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Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2 2006-02-02
Anonymous (2 replies)
This article is entitled Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Are hardware firewalls any better. I would love to finally understand the difference between a 'hardware' firewall and a 'software' firewall......

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Re: Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2 2006-04-10
Anonymous
I dont mean to be rude man, but if you dont know the difference between a hardware and software firewall then you have no business reading this article. If you google "difference between hardware and software firewalls" I am sure you will come up with tonnes of docs that can help you out there....

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Re: Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2 2006-08-14
Anonymous
One big difference is that the hardware firewall isnt sitting on the intentional target on an attack. This includes if someone finds a way to hack the firewall (hardware or software) they will find that in the hardware envoirement the system wich usually is the intended target isnt comprimised and g...

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Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2 2006-10-12
QueenZZ (1 replies)
well elaborated stuffs about firewalls here :)

May I know, How does cryptographic protection (at the TCP/IP layers or at the application layer)affect a firewall's ability to protect against viruses?

thanks!!!...

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Re: Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2 2006-11-11
Don Parker (1 replies)
Hello,

A firewall only enforces ports either being open or closed, which in turn are, opened or closed, by programs on your computer. Encryption does not affect a firewall one way or another. Lastly, firewalls do not deal with viruses at all, but rather only do what I mentioned in the first sente...

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Re: Re: Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2 2008-10-10
Anonymous
Is there any firewall that deals with virus?...

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Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2 2007-01-05
Ramlock (1 replies)
The difference is obvious then is it? What is a hardware firewall without software? Firmware *is* software. What is a PIX with no IOS? Not much really. What is a Nokia without IPSO? The same. What is a HP whatever without Splat? Just another server. We won't talk about talk about anything on Windows...

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Re: Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2 2007-12-24
Saru
Isn't the difference between HW and SW firewalls from a security point of view more about the amount of services available? A HW firewall might be running SSH, or a web portal whilst a server/PC will be running far more juicer targets that can be compromised.... ...

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