Firewalls are the type of security measures that are must for your dedicated server. For the business that wants their servers that contains their mission-critical data and to protect their website from the attacks and disruptions, a firewall is an excellent security means. With the urge of having a secure internet environment, the demands for the Firewalls (hardware and software) is increasing to a great extent among all the businesses. Simply put, a Firewall scan all the connections from all the networks that attempt to connect with your server and stops all the unwanted connection to your website or application. These are the best, and a must have security measure for your website or application.
A firewall can act as the protective shield to your computer and safeguards all the valuable data from the possible attacks and threats that can occur either from the local network or the worldwide networks. A firewall blocks all the dangerous pieces of information from reaching your system and ensures maximum security for your website or application.
Functions of Firewall
- Restrict the access: You can configure your firewall to grant access only to the few users or to a specific range of IP addresses. It will help you monitor the traffic to your website or application.
- Minimizing the attacks: Most of the dedicated servers are prone to malicious activities from the hackers and attackers. You can secure your users or visitors personal data, email addresses, credit card details and many more sensitive details.
A firewall can be implemented on both- Hardware level and Software Level or a combination of both. A firewall usually examines all the data packets entering the and leaving the intranet and blocks those that do not meet the specified security measures criteria.
Types of Firewalls
There are three types of firewalls
- Packet filters
- Stateful inspection
- Proxys
These categories of firewalls are not mutually exclusive and today’s modern firewalls are the mix of abilities that may fall in more than one of the firewall mentioned above types. The most common way to compare firewalls is to examine the TCP/IP (transmission control protocol/Internet Protocol) that each layer at the source works in conjunction with the TCP/IP layer at the destination.
Generally implementing firewall is one of the most effective and efficient methods to stop attacks on the website. Many web hosting service providers these days are providing the basic shared firewalls preconfigured along with your server, and hence they ensure their network is protected against attacks. However, you can have your dedicated firewall for your server as per your budget and needs.