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Originally Posted by Ashley Weed
Does a firewall on a router actually put up any substantial form of defense? I run and manage two seperate wireless networks, and I know that it claims "built in firewall", etc. but what is it actually doing inside of there?  |
What is implemented on most gateways is not technically a firewall, but provides firewall like bennifets.
A gateway is a device that connects multiple computers through 1 internet connection and out to the internet through a technology called Network Address Translation (NAT). I think gateway is what you meant by router.
By putting the gateway in front of your network it will stop people from being able to penetrate your network and attempt to port scan or enter your computer through traditional hacking techniques. As you may have noticed, most worms propogate by connecting to a port on a computer and abusing a service. The gateway stops people from initiating connections to your computers behind it.
This is all true unless you use routing. In which case packets destined for ports on your gateway get sent to a computer of your selection.