probably a stupid question(firewall related)

[kaesden]

Between an asus NT66U, and a Sonicwall firewall, what differences are there security wise? The asus obviously wins on cost, and does have several features that a sonicwall doesn't, wireless mainly, but thats easy enough to add with an access point.

As far as the firewall, they both have a firewall, but what are the advantages of the sonicwall? Is it mainly performance when in an environment with more users?

 

[XavierMace]

That's kinda like asking what the difference between a Kia and Bentley is. Yeah, they are both cars with 4 wheels.

Performance, flexibility, management, etc. Asus gives you a minimal firewall, a Sonicwall is a true firewall. I'd also recommend looking at Sophos UTM as an alternative to the Sonicwall.

 

[jardows]

Firewalls typically come in two flavors - fully customizable, and basic presets. Most of your home grade routers are of the basic preset type. They will have a basic packet filter and intrusion detection. If you want more security than that, you will have settings like low, medium, high, with each setting blocking traffic on a set number of IP ports.

There have been some home grade firewalls that allow full customization, but they are very rare. A fully featured firewall will allow you to allow only the specific traffic you want, will have advanced reporting features and packet analysis.

If you want a balance of cost/features, you could always look at repurposing an old computer, put in two NIC's and install pfSense. That will give you the full control and security of a higher-end solution like the sonicwall, but at a much lower cost.

 

[Genx87]

If you are going the pfsense I suggest the free version of Sophos UTM 9 running on an old PC with two nics.

Security wise the biggest difference is a Sonicwall like firewall will be blocking outboud traffic. And many of them are now incorporating application layer control, AV at the gateway, and other unified threat security on the box. Consumer grade routers rarely do this out of the box. And even if they can, it is tedious and not as flexible\capable.

I have the an ASUS RT66? Cant remember the exact model, it does AC 1750. Anyways it is an access point and an old PC running Sophos UTM 9 is my firewall.

One thing I will warn you. If you want a fully functional firewall for home use. Be prepared to put in some work to open holes for games or other consumer grade software. People writing games will open all sorts of different ports ect. It was an eye opening experience on how game devs have got used to home routers that block nothing outbound.

 

[mv2devnull]

Be prepared to put in some work to open holes for games or other consumer grade software.

Indeed, the bold part. When you have full control, then you have full responsibility too. The cheap presets do not give many options,
but they are "reasonable". If you punch holes on your own, you really have to know what you are doing.