Next generation firewall offers complete PC protection

Staying away from intruders and keeping oneself safe is best achieved by creating a barrier or a wall. Take the Great Wall of China as an example. Now, take this concept and apply it to something more contemporary—like the Internet.

These days, protecting yourself from intruders is just as relevant in the real world as it is in the online realm. And while, technology has paved the way for advanced network protection, next generation firewalls offer better security, more attention to detail and greater control in managing your systems.

Traditional firewalls manage online traffic from ports and protocols--for instance, banning or allowing the entire port 80 for HTTP traffic or port 443 for HTTPS traffic. The technology used in an updated firewalls can be linked to the applications or traffic types extending these ports. To make it simpler, one can open port 80 for selected HTTP traffic for specific applications, sites or services allowed.

Next generation firewalls are recognized as a unified threat management (UTM) solution, which can be best utilized by the small-to-medium business enterprises. Bundled packs also lend additional services such as, antivirus, anti-spam as well as intrusion prevention system.

The latest in firewall technology helps in both security and bandwidth control. Inherent to the technology is the ability to capture malicious activities and even feature enhanced cloud services that lends protection for your entire network.

Below are the common features of Next generation firewalls

1. Standard firewall features – Incorporates traditional firewall applications like port/protocol inspection, network address translation.

2. Identification and filtering of applications: This one is a basic feature of new firewall technology to monitor and investigate potential threats through identification and filtration of traffic depending on the specific applications, rather than just opening ports for all kinds of traffic.

3. Intrusion Prevention: The firewall is designed to act intelligently and is most evident via Intrusion detection and prevention seen through its intrusion prevention system functionality.

4. Malware filtration: Apart from checking for other malware sites and applications; new generation firewalls also offer reputation based filtering and blocks bad reputation application.