The following tables compare different aspects of a number of firewalls, starting from simple home firewalls up to the most sophisticated Enterprise firewalls.
Suggested Vendors:
Firewall rule-set basic filtering features comparison
| Can Target: | Changing default policy to accept/ reject (by issuing only 1 rule at most) | IP destination address(es) | IP source address(es) | TCP/UDP destination port(s) | TCP/UDP source port(s) | Ethernet MAC destination address | Ethernet MAC source address | Inbound firewall (Ingress) | Outbound firewall (Egress) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows XP Firewall | No | No | Yes | Partial | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Cisco Access List | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Linux iptables | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Check Point VPN-1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trend Micro PC-cillin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Can Target: | Changing default policy to accept/ reject (by issuing only 1 rule at most) | IP destination address(es) | IP source address(es) | TCP/UDP destination port(s) | TCP/UDP source port(s) | Ethernet MAC destination address | Ethernet MAC source address | Inbound firewall (Ingress) | Outbound firewall (Egress) |
- Windows XP Firewall can target only single destination TCP/UDP port per rule, not port ranges, therefore support is partial.
Firewall Management features comparison
| Features: | Configuration: GUI, text or both modes? | Remote Access: Web (HTTP), Telnet, SSH, RDP, Serial COM RS232, ... | After rule change - requires firewall restart - less than one second ? | Ability to centrally manage all firewalls together |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows XP Firewall | both | RDP, telnet (ssh, vnc or others with 3rd party software) | Yes | Yes(with AD and GPO) |
| Cisco Access List | both | Telnet, SSH, Web(Java App "PDM" or the newer "ASDM"), RS232 | Yes | Partial |
| Linux iptables | both | Telnet, SSH, Web (webmin), X/Win32 GUI "fwbuilder", RS232 | Yes | Partial |
| Check Point VPN-1 | GUI | proprietary GUI, SSH, Web (HTTP/HTTPS) | Yes | Yes |
| Features: | Configuration: GUI, text or both modes? | Remote Access: Web (HTTP), Telnet, SSH, RDP, Serial COM (RS232)... | After rule change - requires firewall restart - less than one second ? | Ability to centrally manage all firewalls together |
- NOTE: Rule changes on Checkpoint firewalls do not require any restart and incur no outage time.
- NOTE: Because Linux Iptables and Cisco ACL are text-based firewalls, you can centrally manage them all-at-once by using additional tools, like KDE Konsole or expect automation tool.
- NOTE: Due to the distributed nature of the Checkpoint architecture, no single interface is used exclusively. Security, NAT and VPN configuration is always done using the proprietary GUI, however basic IP networking and routing configuration of individual firewalls could be done using SSH or the Web interface.
Firewall's other features comparison
| Features: | Modularity: supports third-party modules to extend functionality? | Open-Source License? | supports IPv6 ? | Class: Home / Professional | on what Operating Systems it runs? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows XP Firewall | No | No | Vista or later | Home | Windows XP |
| Cisco Access List | No | No | Yes | Professional | Cisco IOS |
| Linux iptables | Yes | Yes | Yes | Professional | Linux 2.4+ |
| Check Point VPN-1 | Yes | No | Yes | Professional | Solaris, Linux (SPLAT or RHEL), Windows NT,2000,2003 |
| Features: | Modularity: supports third-party modules to extend functionality? | Open-Source License? | supports IPv6 ? | Class: Home / Professional | on what Operating Systems it runs? |
- NOTE: Checkpoint support a limited range of third-party modules from certified partners. Modules are integrated with Checkpoint firewalls through a platform named OPSEC
Non-Firewall extra features comparison
Those features are not strictly firewall features, but are sometimes bundled with firewall software, or exist on the platform.
NOTE: Features will be marked as "yes", even if it's separate module that comes with the platform, on which firewall sits.
IDS: real-time firewall that logs/sniffs/blocks suspicious connections, that are not part of rule-set.
VPN (Virtual Private Network) Types are: PPTP, L2TP, MPLS, IPsec, SSL/SSH.
| Can: | NAT (static, dynamic w/o ports, PAT) | IDS (Intrusion Detection System) | VPN (Virtual Private Network) | AV (Anti-Virus) | Sniffer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows XP | Partial (PAT, with Internet Connection Sharing) | Yes (with SPECTER) | Partial (Limited to 1 client) | Yes (McAfee, Symantec, etc) | Yes (with wireshark) |
| Cisco IOS | Yes (supports three NAT types) | No | Yes (some IOS versions) | No | No |
| Linux OS | Yes (supports three NAT types) | Yes (with Prelude-IDS) | Yes (with openVPN) | Yes (with clamav) | Yes (with wireshark) |
| Check Point | Yes (supports three NAT types) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Can: | NAT (static, dynamic w/o ports, PAT) | IDS (Intrusion Detection System) | VPN (Virtual Private Network) | AV (Anti-Virus) | Sniffer |
- NOTE: For better security, I recommend adding additional security measures at OSI Layer 7 (Application). That will be: Security Proxy and Application Security Framework (like SUSE AppArmor).
