Computer IT Services In Bergen County: New Jersey Firewalls - 06-10-2009

While it’s common knowledge that you need a firewall to protect your company’s network, some businesses remain uneducated on what bests suits their needs, leaving many companies unprepared to protect their valuable information assets. This is where an NJ computer IT services firm is crucial to helping you determine your needs, purchase any necessary hardware and software, and deploy the correct applications so you don’t have to take time away from your core business operations. But before you contact a computer network company, says New Jersey-based UPTIME, it pays to educate yourself a little about the types of firewalls available to you so you know what you’re paying for.

“All firewalls aim to protect against malware,” says UPTIME President Einat Aviraz-Sibony. “But they’ve evolved into more than just a virtual moat between you and hoards of hackers and viruses.”

In general, a firewall is defined as a hardware or software system that prevents unauthorized access to your network. Systems range from a basic firewall to the more sophisticated unified threat manager (or UTM) that bundle firewalls with other malware protection applications.

There are five primary types of firewalls: packet filters, stateful inspection (Also referred to as a dynamic packet filter), proxys, dynamic, and kernel. Which is right for your company depends on your size, the kind of applications you need to run on your network, what kind of information you need to protect, and, of course, your budget.

NJ Network Layer Firewalls

Network layer firewalls for New Jersey businesses include packet-filter and stateful inspection firewalls. A packet filter firewall looks at each packet of information entering or leaving your network and either accepts or rejects it based on a set of predefined rules. Such firewalls are fast. They’re also the least expensive and the most vulnerable to attack. Stateful-inspection firewalls keep track of the state of the network connections that travel across it. They provide your network administrator more control over your network traffic. Network layer firewalls are fast and won’t be visible to you or other users.

Application-Layer Firewalls In Bergen County

An application-layer firewall is a host using proxy servers to proxy traffic instead of routing it - it doesn’t permit traffic directly between networks. An application-layer firewall inspects traffic and blocks whatever your administrator determines inappropriate content - specific websites, viruses, etc. In general, these firewalls are less transparent than network layer firewalls.

New Jersey Proxy Firewalls

Proxy firewalls are the safest and most secure, but they’re also slower with less functionality. Such firewalls are more secure because traffic does not flow through a proxy; it serves as a go-between for systems on both sides of the firewall. This makes it harder for malware to discover where the network actually is.

Unified Threat Management Firewalls In Paramus

UTIs promise an all-in-one package: a firewall, VPN, intrusion detection and prevention, anti-malware, anti-spam, and content filtering—functions usually performed by multiple systems. They offer seamless integration and convenience for smaller companies but recent reports reveal that some are more effective than others. Indeed, tests performed by the InfoWorld Test Center show that among four tested, only the SonicWall NSA E7500 had a considerable protection against malware blocking 96 percent of attacks. (The other three, Astaro Security Gateway 425, WatchGuard Firebox Peak X5500, and ZyXel ZyWall USG1000 blocked 26, 33 and 69% of attacks.

So while a UTM may be the most cost effective firewall for your Bergen County, NJ business—the SonicWall and ZyXel may well be your best bet among the category.