If you’re looking for an extra measure of online security, a centralized, hardware-based firewall can help — up to a point.
Plus: Preserving XP via slipstreaming, Windows product keys and OEM setups, and using the free Contig tool for special-purpose defragging.
Hardware-based vs. software-based firewalls
After reading the Sept. 5 Top Story, “Ways to secure a router — and other helpful tips,” TonyL sent in this suggestion.
- “Although Fred Langa’s router security suggestions are great as far as they go, a more extreme (and expensive) form of security is a hardware firewall. We use the Dell Sonicwall TZ200W [site]. Why bother with antivirus software and firewalls on each computer when you can have security at the router?
“Our Sonicwall annual subscription costs about $350. We think it’s worth every penny; we don’t have to worry nearly as much now as we did during the pre-Sonicwall days.”
Yes, centralized firewalls can improve security. They sit between your local network and the outside world, acting as a prefilter to help protect your LAN (and everything connected to it) from external, Internet-based threats.
This type of firewall is often called hardware-based because it typically runs in its own, dedicated box — in other words, it’s not just software running on a PC.
Simple, centralized firewalls are commonplace. For example, most consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers have a basic firewall built in and enabled by default. When you adjust a Wi-Fi router’s settings to, say, allow or block specific types of network traffic or locations, you’re actually changing the router’s firewall rules.