Small business firewalls come in four categories: network-level, circuit, application, and stateful multilayer. Each provides different levels of protection and cost. Firewalls protect from hackers, viruses, and other harmful things. Stateful multilayer offers the highest level of protection but is the most expensive.
Small business firewalls fall into four main categories. Each category protects from a certain level of the network. The four options include network-level, circuit, application, or stateful multilayer. Each tier provides its own set of advantages and disadvantages for the small business.
A firewall protects a small business from a myriad of problems. More importantly, it protects your network from hackers. Firewalls also protect small business computers and devices from spam, viruses, Trojan horses, and other harmful things that can happen if someone enters your network.
The most basic types of small business firewall protection are at the network layer. This type of firewall controls access to the small business network by verifying information such as the IP address of the target computer, the service requested, and the port used to access the network. The firewall can also be configured to check specific criteria before allowing access, such as specific domain names. This is the least expensive of the four options.
The circuit-level small business firewall allows access to the network based on a three-step process. The first step in the process is for one device to send a request to another device that is on the small business network. The second step is for the device on the small business network to respond to the sending device. Once the original device acknowledges and validates receipt of the information, access to the network is granted. This option costs more than a network layer firewall.
Small business application firewall options protect the network at the application layer, such as the software. For example, a small business that has a firewall on its email server provides protection against spam, viruses, and other malicious attacks on the network, but only at the application layer. Application firewall protection costs more than the other two options but less than the layered stateful option.
Stateful Multilayer Level (SML) small business firewall offers the highest level of protection. This type of small business firewall combines the work of all the other three options into one complete package. Also, this type of firewall creates a direct connection between the host and the client. These types of firewalls also work faster than the other options. Due to the comprehensive nature of this type of firewall, however, it’s also the most expensive of the main four options.
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