About firewalls

A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. You can implement a firewall in either hardware or software form, or a combination of both. Firewalls prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet (the local network to which you are connected) must pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

Note:
In protecting private information, a firewall is considered the first line of defense; it cannot, however, be considered the only such line. Firewalls are generally designed to protect network traffic and connections, and therefore do not attempt to authenticate individual users when determining who can access a particular computer or network.

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Maximize the value of your investment in the firewall1

No matter what size your business is, Cybersecurity has become a top priority to stay abreast of security policies and configurations. It requires expert management and monitoring of leading firewalls and constant vigilance. You need a level of expertise for obtaining the optimal security benefits of a firewall that is often rare in small to midsize organizations with multiple locations.

By complementing industry-leading cybersecurity solutions with a managed service, Pro Group Networks bridges this gap that simplifies implementation and management. So without the cost of dedicated onsite IT staff, it becomes easy for any-size office or operation to have enterprise-class security.

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How does a firewall work

Firewalls carefully analyze incoming traffic based on pre-established rules and filter traffic coming from unsecured or suspicious sources to prevent attacks. Firewalls guard traffic at a computer’s entry point called ports, which is where information is exchanged with external devices. For example, “Source address 172.18.1.1 is allowed to reach destination 172.18.2.1 over port 22."

Think of IP addresses as houses, and port numbers as rooms within the house. Only trusted people (source addresses) are allowed to enter the house (destination address) at all—then it’s further filtered so that people within the house are only allowed to access certain rooms (destination ports), depending on if they're the owner, a child, or a guest. The owner is allowed to any room (any port), while children and guests are allowed into a certain set of rooms (specific ports).

Read More at what do firewalls monitor

What Is Managed Firewall and How Does it Work?

Let’s start with the basics: do you know the difference between a firewall and a managed firewall? You probably have some idea of what a firewall is and what it does. A firewall is part of your computer system or network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting outward communication. It keeps the bad guys out, which is good. It also can be used to keep your employees off of sites that could potentially pose security risks or efficiency risks to your business.

If you’re looking to get the most utility out of a firewall, though, you will also use it as a monitoring tool. It provides useful data like what kinds of people and what kinds of threats are targeting your business. Of course, monitoring your network is resource-intensive, time-consuming, costly, and requires expertise. That’s where a managed firewall service, provided by security experts, comes into play.

So, what is a managed firewall?
The managed firewall is a service provided by qualified managed security services providers (MSSPs) to address security threats and to monitor your network traffic to understand what it typically looks like so that atypical use can be easily identified and corrected. The security professionals who monitor your network provide analysis and reporting as part of the managed firewall package.

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firewall

A firewall is software or firmware that enforces a set of rules about what data packets will be allowed to enter or leave a computer network. A firewall's main purpose is to filter traffic and lower the risk that malicious packets traveling over the public internet will be able to impact the security of a private network. Firewalls are incorporated into a wide variety of networked devices and may also be purchased as stand-alone software applications.

The term firewall is a metaphor that compares a type of physical barrier that's put in place to limit the damage a fire can cause with a virtual barrier that's put in place to limit damage from an external or internal cyberattack. When located at the perimeter of a network, a firewall provides low-level network protection, as well as important logging and auditing functions.

When organizations began moving from mainframe computers and dumb clients to the client-server model, the ability to control access to the server became a priority. Before the first firewalls emerged based on work done in the late 1980s, the only real form of network security was enforced through access control lists (ACLs) residing on routers. ACLs specified which Internet Protocol (IP) addresses were granted or denied access to the network.

The exponential growth of the internet and the resulting increase in connectivity of networks, however, meant that filtering network traffic by IP address alone was no longer enough. Static packet-filtering firewalls, which examine packet headers and use rules to make decisions about what traffic to let through, arguably became the most important part of every network security initiative by the end of the last century.

Read more: what is a network firewall and how does it work