Firewalls

We've mentioned firewalls throughout the book. In most wireless LANs, the firewall is built into the access point, which also contains a router. In most small-office and home situations, a firewall can help keep unwanted users out of your network, and you shouldn't have to give it much thought. Here we'll explain the two basic ways that firewalls work so that you can choose which one you would like to use (you really should use either a hardware or software firewall).

When we say a hardware firewall, we're actually talking about software running on a hardware router. You can, in fact, purchase an expensive, stand-alone hardware firewall, but this level of security is typically necessary only in a large business network.

Most home and office wireless networks will be well served by the firewall built into your wireless access point/router (Figure 12.1).

Figure 12.1. This wireless access point from SMC has a built-in firewall.