What is a firewall service? Is it necessary or unnecessary? How does it work? Are there drawbacks to using this tool? Is it safe to use?
This article will provide answers to these questions. Secrets About Firewall Service In Linux
What is Firewall Service In Linux?
Firewall service is a security tool to filter network traffic and prevent unauthorized access to the computer’s resources. This type of service is commonly used in corporate networks.
Is it necessary or unnecessary? How does it work? Are there drawbacks to using this tool? Is it safe to use?
Mostly, firewall service is necessary. It helps us stop potentially dangerous network traffic from reaching our computer’s resources. It protects us from attacks. Most likely, your computer will not be attacked by external threats, but there are different kinds of viruses and malware that can harm your system if you do not have a reliable antivirus program installed on your computer.
Firewall service blocks those kinds of malicious threats before they can get into your system and cause damage. Additionally, some people open ports on their computers so they can share files with other people on the internet, but that can be unsafe if you don’t know who you’re sharing with. Firewalls make sure you don’t open such ports and expose your PC to cyber threats.
Secrets About Firewall Service In Linux: Drawbacks
There are some drawbacks to using this tool: a firewall can slow down network traffic. If you live in an area where there are lots of other people around (for example, New York City), the firewall may make your internet speed slow down significantly, because it has to filter all the traffic going through the router or modem.
The second drawback is related to its name: a firewall will block all kinds of traffic, including normal traffic that doesn’t pose any threat to your PC’s security. It may block requests from legitimate software or services (for example, if you want to use an FTP client or SSH client).
Some firewalls might block everything from certain IP addresses or Internet domains. This might be an issue if you need access to these websites for work purposes (for example, Google) or if you’re doing an online banking transaction for which you need access to your bank’s secure website (which usually requires an SSL certificate).
In this case, it would be better if you used a dedicated VPN connection for safe web browsing and online banking transactions instead of relying on your home firewall for this purpose.
The last drawback is related to security: some people install a firewall thinking that it will protect their system from viruses and malware, when in fact firewalls are not designed for this purpose at all. Instead, it’s much safer to install an antivirus program on your computer.
Conclusion
In conclusion, a firewall service is a very useful security tool that can protect your computer from external threats, as well as from internal threats like viruses and malware. However, it also has some drawbacks like slowing down network traffic and blocking requests from legitimate software or services. In addition to that, a firewall is not a substitute for an antivirus program, because it does not protect your computer from malicious code.