What is the difference between gateway and firewall? And what are the reasons why companies need to determine which one suits their business needs more?
What Is the Difference Between Gateway and Firewall?
A gateway is a device that allows a computer to access the Internet or any other network. A firewall is a device that protects a network from unauthorized access. To allow computers to connect to the Internet, there must be a connection between the gateway and the Internet.
Moreover, the gateway also acts as a firewall. This is typically part of the system or equipment used to protect a local area network (LAN) or private network from unauthorized access. Firewalls are designed to control traffic flow through an organization’s networks to prevent unauthorized access. As well as protecting data and applications from external attacks, and monitoring activities on the network.
A firewall is usually used by organizations as a security measure to protect their networks and block hackers from gaining access. A gateway helps provide a secure connection for both private and public networks.
Moreover, it also assures that security policy are in place for both internal and external users’ network access. It also manages policies between multiple corporate networks, internet service providers (ISP), local area networks (LAN), or wide area networks (WAN).
Thus, a gateway is less secure than a firewall because it allows all types of traffic, which include malicious programs. While only allowing specific types of traffic through firewalls. Firewalls are installed on individual computers within private networks that could be accessed by members of an organization. While gateways can have private or public addresses.
A gateway is also different from proxy servers because gateways do not filter content. While proxy servers allow administrators to control what is going on inside their organization’s intranet, they do not control what comes into it. Proxy servers can screen content based on content type. While the gateways screen is only based on source IP addresses.
Gateway or Firewall: Which One Is for Your Company?
If your company focuses on content filtering, a proxy server is the best option. Because it can filter content that comes to its organization. While, if your company focuses on security, a firewall is the best option. Because it can control what goes in and out of your company’s network. Thus, a firewall gives you more security options than a gateway.
So, the difference between a gateway and a firewall is that a gateway acts as a firewall. And it allows access to the internet and other networks. While a firewall only allows access to the Internet and protects local networks from unauthorized access.
A gateway is also different from firewalls because it does not filter content but is only based on the source IP address. Firewalls can filter on any type of content but have fewer security measures than gateways.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of differences between a gateway and a firewall. The most important difference is that a gateway allows access to the Internet while firewalls do not allow any access to the Internet. So, which one do you think suits your company’s needs better?