What Is a Firewall?

A network firewall is the first line of defense for your business; it’s the frontline against the ever-present threat of cyberattacks. With the rise of remote work and the increasing sophistication of hackers, choosing the right firewall is more critical than ever.

In this article, we will introduce the top 10 firewall solutions available on the market, from industry leaders like Cisco and Fortinet to open-source options like pfSense. We’ll also explore Atlantic.Net’s robust Web Application Firewall and how it can seamlessly integrate with your chosen firewall for comprehensive protection. Whether you’re securing a small business or a large enterprise, this guide will help you find the perfect firewall to safeguard your network.

Top Firewall Solutions

Choosing the best firewall solution for your business or organization’s HIPAA Hosting or PCI Compliant Hosting can prove difficult. In this article, we have compiled a list of the top 10 firewalls on the market to help make this choice easier for you.

1. Atlantic.Net Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Atlantic.Net offers a robust Web Application Firewall as part of our Network Edge protection. The WAF examines web traffic looking for suspicious activity; it then automatically filters out illegitimate traffic based on rulesets that Atlantic.Net applies for you or custom rulesets applied at your request.

The WAF looks at both GET and POST-based HTTP requests and applies a rule set, such as the ModSecurity core rule set covering the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, to determine what traffic to block, challenge or let pass. The WAF is perfect for web servers. It features intelligent protection that can block zero-day exploits at the firewall layer, giving your system admins time to plan the fixes to the server infrastructure.

2. Cisco’s ASA and vASA

The Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) is a common sight in the data center as it is a unified threat management device, combining several network security functions in one appliance. ASA and vASA boast firewall, antivirus, intrusion protection, and VPN capabilities. The appliance is user-friendly, powerful, and super reliable. The only negative is a high price tag for the appliances and licensing.

The ASA product line contains several models, each with a different capacity and price point. The ASA is managed by an easy-to-use Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM). One of the most popular features is the near real-time Syslog viewer.

3. Juniper SRX and vSRX

SRX is Juniper Networks’ latest generation services platform. The firewall combines the advanced Junos operating system with popular security offerings on a high-speed, feature-rich platform. The Series Services Gateways are high-performance network security solutions for enterprises and service providers that deliver security, routing, and networking capabilities. It is also available as a virtual appliance known as vSRX.

4. Fortinet Fortigate

Fortinet FortiGate firewalls enable security-driven networking capabilities that focus on security, specifically its intrusion prevention system (IPS), web filtering, secure sockets layer (SSL) inspection, and automated threat protection. FortiGate’s next-generation firewalls provide high-performance, multilayered security and end-to-end protection across the network.

5. SonicWall

SonicWall next-gen firewalls feature advanced threat protection at the heart of the design, and SonicWall offers a range that is suitable for all businesses. The SOHO series is great for SMBs and branch offices, the NSa firewalls are great for big business, and the NSsp range is designed for the big players such as cloud providers and large distributed enterprise organizations. The SonicWall key feature is Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI) that uses deep learning to intelligently protect against vulnerabilities and ransomware.

6. Untangle NG Firewall

The Next-Gen (NG) Firewall comes in a light-free version or a fully-featured paid edition. It has probably the best-looking user interface out there with a robust, information-rich dashboard. Features can be enabled and disabled on demand, but most are behind a paywall, requiring a subscription to untangle services.

NG Firewall’s main features focus on securing web applications, preventing malware, phishing, and more. It has great filtering capabilities and a feature-rich analytics engine that can display exactly what you need from the logs.

7. Checkpoint

Checkpoint is another very popular maker of firewalls, arguably those with the best user interface: simple to use, but extremely powerful. The Check Point Firewall is part of the Software Blade architecture that supplies “next-generation” firewall features, including VPN, Intrusion Prevention, and mobile device connectivity.

Checkpoint was the first company to use stateful inspection of packets (what comes in must go out), and its firewalls are hugely popular in cloud architecture.

8. WatchGuard Firebox

Designed in Seattle, WatchGuard Firebox Firewalls come in 4 form factors. All Fireboxes are suitable for small- and medium-sized businesses. They offer VPN connectivity and PoE for effortlessly expanding WIFI network and SD-WAN connectivity. Security is paramount on WatchGuard firewalls, and these devices are feature packed with strong network throughput and enterprise-grade security out-of-the-box.

9. PFSense

PFSense is a hugely popular open-source distribution. PFSense offers software appliances and also sells enterprise firewalls to businesses. It’s a completely customizable distribution of FreeBSD specifically tailored for use as a firewall and router.

PFSense is entirely managed via web interface and includes a fully featured firewall, router, and VPN solution for network edge protection and cloud secure networking. You get stateful packet inspection, GeoIP blocking, anti-spoofing, NAT Mapping, policy-based routing, IPV6 support, an IPS, Packet Analyser, VPN, IPSec, Dynamic DNS, and so much more… not bad for free!

10. OPNSense

Another open-source firewall is OPNSense, another FreeBSD distribution. It is a direct fork from PFSense, so it shares many of the same features. It is a web application firewall that focuses on intrusion protection, application control, web filtering, and antivirus. OPNSense is primarily used in virtual installations, it’s lightweight and very responsive.

You also get extra features such as support for multi-WAN, VPN, hardware failover, and two-factor authentication; it also offers free web filtering with Sunny Valley Networks, which is rare in a firewall solution.

How Can Atlantic.Net Help?

Are you looking for a leading hosting provider to host your firewall solution? Look no further than Atlantic.Net. With over 30 years of proven experience, our full suite of managed services and always available professional support team can build the perfect solution for your business or organization. You can find out more about our leading Web Application Firewall here.

Atlantic.Net stands ready to help you attain fast compliance with a range of certifications, such as SOC 2 and SOC 3, HIPAA, and HITECH, all with 24x7x365 support, monitoring, and world-class data center infrastructure. For faster application deployment, free IT architecture design, and assessment, visit us at www.atlantic.net, call 888-618-DATA (3282), or email us at [email protected].

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