Firewall/Hardware Questions

[CS5679]

Hello fellow Macheads,

I couldnt really find a place to post these questions in these forums so I decided to post these questions here... My questions that I have are.... 1.)What does a firewall do exactly? And I have a extra computer just kind of laying around the house, so I heard that you can add extra security to your network by making the computer into a hardware firewall, so what does this hardware firewall do? 2.) and how does it make your network safer? 3.)

 

[GoCubsGo]

Read the rules, you don't need nor should you be posting your question three times.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=11872740#post11872740
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=11872745#post11872745

How Firewalls Work
What is a hardware firewall and how does it differ from a software firewall?

The last question can be answered in the first two links I'm sure.

 

[CS5679]

Are there really any advantages of having a hardware firewall vs. a software one?

 

[satcomer]

If you are going to use firewall DON'T pay for a software firewall! Use the BSD Unix built in ipfw because it has yet to be cracked. Luckily a developer made NoobProof that will be more secure than any third party firewall on an OS X Mac.

Plus bookmark the Apple document Well known TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products so you can open ports on the firewall that you want to use.