Host based firewall or Software Firewall

A software firewall or host based firewall is a product that is installed on each

individual systems i.e. on servers or on PCs, mobile phones,etc.

This controls the incoming and outgoing traffic on the system from the
network.

Host based firewall has more better control over, what your system can do and
what not..

Software firewall has the ability to block based on not only the site name but
also according to the content. The host based or software firewall can make
your system run slower.

This approach of protecting the systems is often found insufficient due to

various reasons. These firewalls are installed on the perimeter of the networks
and hence have to manage and handle a lot of protocols therefore are very
difficult to manage and configure correctly. Another major issue is that these
firewalls do not protect against viruses and worms such as malicious mobile
code.

Host based firewall were invented to provide more improved protection

against all the threats that were not being handled by the perimeter based
firewalls. Host based firewalls are the firewalls which are installed on each
individual host computer or devices connected in the network and offering
more flexibility to the network security. These firewalls can restrict the
incoming as well as outgoing network traffic for a particular host only. By doing
so this can prevent the host from being infected by the malicious virus, also
can stop the malicious hosts from spreading the infection to other hosts.

Host based firewalls are used for both the servers as well as personal
computers and laptops. And this firewall works by implementing a set of rules
for all the network traffic whether incoming or outgoing from the host. Many
host based firewalls also incorporate with anti-virus software to enhance
capability of the firewall and prevent the intrusion from happening.
Hardware based firewall or Network based firewall
Network firewalls or hardware firewalls are the devices that are used in private
networks which are connected to the internet, to prevent or mitigate the
unauthorised access into the network.

These are devices which look similar to the servers, are used to filter the traffic
to the computers.

The network based or hardware firewall functions at the network level, which
means the firewall filters the traffic as it travels from the internet to the
systems in the network.

Hardware firewalls are more secure as they have their own operating system
therefore less prone to attacks. And as compare to other firewalls, hardware
firewalls are more fast and can handle a larger amount of traffic.

It is used as the first line of defence for the network security as it lays a
perimeter for the protection f the network. Network or hardware firewalls
also contains policies or pre-set rules are used to decide the actions on the
incoming as well as outgoing traffic in the network. The traffic which attempts
to access the network and do not match with the policies is blocked by the
firewall. Network based or hardware firewalls are more scalable than any
other, and can be scaled up as the bandwidth demands the increase.

Network based or hardware firewall also provides the HA(High Availability) and
are also cost effective. Cisco, Check Point, Microsoft, Amazon etc are several
firewall vendors.