Re: Home Firewall VS Enterprise Firewall

From: John (jwholmes_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 06/01/03 

Date: Sun, 01 Jun 2003 03:24:10 GMT

On Sat, 31 May 2003 16:55:00 +0000, Larry wrote:

>
> 1. Since I am only protecting two PC's, isn't the Linksys enough?

 The number of computers should not matter. The importance of them should.

> 2. Either a firewall lets a packet or it doesn't. What does the CISCO
> system do "over and above", the the Linksys isn't.

  I looked at the User's Guide for this model and while it looks like a
nice little home unit it is not a real firewall (and doesn't claim to be).
It does nat and some port forwarding but I see nothing about stateful
inspection, vpns, authentication and logging mechanisms, intrusion detection,
access-control, proxy services, etc. In short, while nice for home I would
not put important data behind it.

> 3. Anything else that explains to me if he's got a real valid point, or, if
> this is just a "your's only cost $70 bucks so it can't be any good"

  I think he is right although the comment sounds more like snobbery than
informed advice. Although I love Cisco there are many good products out
there. If the person who's approval you need likes Cisco get a PIX 501 for
$450. Nobody can claim it is not a real firewall since it runs the same
software as its big brothers. 

-- 
___________
John Holmes
jwholmes@earthlink.net