Hardware firewalls are most often made of concrete or bricks. Their main
design purpose is to stop heat from spreading. Indeed, if you make a small
hole in one and plug in a network from one side and an Internet connection
in a similar small hole on the other side, I suppose it'd be somewhat
secure.
Jokes aside, 'hardware firewall' is a bit of a misnomer. Most of the time,
it's just a standard ole' Intel machine painted red, blue or whatever The
Marketing Department (TM) presumes will look nice in N�tverk &
Kommunikation, The Duckburg News, The Sun or some other quality
publication where people write articles about things they, most of the
time, dont understand. Usually, it's cheaper to buy the machine yourself -
some vendors are known to charge six times the amount a particular NIC
would cost over the counter, and I wont even go into what they charge for
the machine itself. (I think they mumbled something about 'support'..)
However, this assumes a rough understanding of Unix administration and a
good one of Unix and network security. Otoh, speaking firewalls, you'll
never get by without the latter part anyhow, so..
Now, I'm sure someone else will give you some pointers and suggestions.
They usually do.
Kriss Andsten
-
[To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
"unsubscribe firewalls" in the body of the message.]
