It’s a modern world and behind that modern world is a lot of good hardware and software which every small business needs. If you are a small business owner then it is highly recommended that you have a firewall to protect your business from the Internet.
In this article, we will talk about some of the best firewalls for Small Businesses.
SonicWall
If you’re a startup or growing business that depends greatly on offering online services or managing data, you may not quite be ready for a Cisco-level solution quite yet. However, you don’t want to come up short, so you’re probably looking for something similar that’s versatile, agile, and well-suited for small companies. That’s where SonicWall comes in. The entry-level SonicWall firewall options offer some great solutions for small businesses with larger data demands.https://e84cf6512871165c0ce68dc15c6cd43d.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
SonicWall’s firewall choices are optimized for great performance, use machine learning to get better at security, and offer swift “zero-touch deployment” options so that you and your team can get set up fast. The single-pass deep packet inspection process is also quite impressive.
You may also appreciate that integrated Wi-Fi is an option if you decide to go with SonicWall. There are five different devices for small businesses to explore based on what they need in the entry-level category alone. If you’re interested, you can always check out their site for updated info about their options, available upgrades, and pricing.
With Cisco, you can get a hardware firewall to protect your entire corporate network, plus software to protect each device in your office.Try Now
Of all the enterprise firewall solutions we reviewed, we like Cisco ASA the best.
Cisco ASA firewalls have pretty much everything you need to protect your business. With Cisco, you can get a hardware firewall to protect your entire corporate network, plus software to protect each device in your office. This system creates multiple checkpoints in your network firewall security, so you have complete endpoint protection (a.k.a. complete protection for the “endpoint” of your online interactions: your network).
Cisco ASA also offers a lot of useful features for businesses, like VPN routers for companies with multiple locations. But some users report that the management interface is difficult to use. And frankly, the system might be overkill for a small business with only a few computers to protect.Get a Cisco ASA Firewall
FYICisco ASA and pretty much every other provider on our list market their products as next-generation firewalls. That sounds high-tech and fancy, but don’t let the packaging fool you—there’s no actual industry standard for what makes a firewall “next-gen.” Just a word to the wise.
Firewalla: Best firewall for businesses on a budget
Firewalla offers both the basic intrusion prevention as well as content filtering.
Firewalla is a third-party firewall meant to complement the pre-installed security software on your computer. And it’s hardware-only, so all you have to do is connect the box to your router and your WAN port (the ethernet jack that connects directly to the internet). The device then acts as a filter, blocking out any malware and malicious traffic that tries accessing your internal network.
But Firewalla goes beyond the basic intrusion prevention you get with a standard router. It also offers content filtering, which means you can control which sites users can access on your internal network. So if you want to help your employees stay on task, you can use Firewalla to block all gaming sites.
Best of all, Firewalla doesn’t require any subscription fees—the $129 sticker price includes all updates to your hardware. That makes it the perfect small-business firewall for companies on a budget.
See What Firewalla Has to Offer
SonicWall: Best firewall for businesses with multiple locations
SonicWall can help you simplify your medium-sized business’s internal processes without jeopardizing your network security.
If your business has multiple locations, we recommend SonicWall for its site-to-site VPN capabilities.
SonicWall comes preloaded with virtual private network (VPN) capabilities. The software creates VPN tunnels, which allow remote offices and employees to enjoy file sharing and other functions on your internal network securely—without each employee needing to run their own VPN client software. Basically, it can help you simplify your medium-sized business’s internal processes without jeopardizing your network security.
SonicWall systems also feature a web application firewall, which allows you to control permissions and preferences for each computer application that accesses the web. That means greater security and customization possibilities for your business.
Finally, we wanted to mention that SonicWall also offers load balancing to help you balance incoming requests between your servers—that way, your company website can still operate smoothly even during peak usage hours. SonicWall’s load balancing is fast enough to rival other prominent load balancers (like Peplink Balance), and it’s convenient since it’s integrated with the rest of your network management tools.
Palo Alto Networks: Best for file sharing on the cloud
Palo Alto Networks ensures that you get reliable protection for any sensitive data stored on the cloud.
Does your company use cloud-based file-sharing services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Apple iCloud? If so, you may want to invest in a Palo Alto firewall router for your small business.
Cloud storage systems aren’t part of your internal network, so they’re not protected by most firewalls. But firewalls from Palo Alto Networks use site-to-site VPN tunnels to create a virtualized network that includes your cloud storage. That way, you get reliable protection for any sensitive data stored on the cloud.
One thing to keep in mind, though, is Palo Alto firewalls use only stateful packet inspections (at least as far as we can tell). That means the firewall doesn’t analyze the actual data transmitted to your device—just basic info like the origin IP address. That makes it a bit less effective than some of the other options on our list.
See More Options from Palo Alto Networks
Fortinet Security Fabric
Fortinet’s hardware-driven firewalls are some of the most respected in the industry and some of the most secure. Not only does the company have a powerful software backbone that offers a variety of important protections for both midsize and small businesses, but it is one of the few companies that has designed its own application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) processors. These security chips are purpose-built to offer high-speed network management, with the ability to scale up as your business grows without compromising security.
For small businesses, Fortinet offers a variety of great routers, each with support for its Next-Generation Firewall protection. They offer varied bandwidths for different functions, which you’ll need to choose based on your businesses’ unique requirements. Still, all of them can enjoy Fortinet’s strong firewall and several other protective features.
Management is through a singular console that keeps all wired and wireless connections grouped for simple and comprehensive oversight at all times. It’s all managed in the cloud, too, so remote operation is entirely possible no matter your business needs.
Arguably the best way to take advantage of what Fortinet offers, though, is through its Security Fabric package, designed specifically for small businesses. It offers a comprehensive solution that includes endpoint device protection, a strong firewall, and improved security for individual devices and applications.
You can request a demonstration or a quote directly from Fortinet.
$317 FROM AMAZON$355 FROM WALMART
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X ER-X
The Ubituiqi Edge routers aren’t a firewall in and of themselves, but they are an affordable network router that has a built-in firewall that, by default, blocks all incoming web traffic. That’s a great way to keep your business protected from any outside sources while still allowing you to send information into the wider internet if you need to.
But you don’t have to settle for that if you need some form of two-way communication with the world. Ubiquiti’s routers have a simple system for adding specific, bespoke rules for the Firewall, letting you completely customize what goes where and what can communicate with what on your network. Want to block all connections between the internet and your local network? Easy. Want to allow traffic for already existing connections, but block everything else? Done.
Ubiquiti even has a handy guide to help you get started with the manual process or kick-start the automatic configuration, which lets you make some more modest customizations.
None of the Edge hardware that gives you access to the firewall is overly expensive, and the whole thing can be configured without an in-depth knowledge of networking, making it great for smaller businesses that want to focus on running the business rather than an expansive network. This particular EdgeRouter X ER-X requires a 25V passive PoE or power adapter, but also includes a passthrough PoE option to connect it to an airMAX device. In addition the five Gigabit Ethernet ports (including PoE in and PoE out), the EdgeRouter X uses the excellent EdgeMAX management system, which is simple enough even for smaller offices to pick up while providing security and device management that a growing company requires.
Ubiquiti’s firewall router doesn’t have built-in anti-malware solutions or a VPN, but those features take configuration and management, plus supplementation from other software. If you want a firewall that does what you need it to and doesn’t take much management, the one found in Ubiquiti’s routers is a great place to start.
$180 FROM AMAZON$65 FROM OFFICE DEPOT
Cisco Meraki MX
Cisco has been a household name in networking for decades and with good reason. Its products might typically be targeted at larger organizations. Still, if you want a solution that has that enterprise feel, scales well, and offers comprehensive and premium features, there are few better than Cisco’s Meraki MX small branch firewalls.
There’s a wide range of models to pick from. The most entry-level options can handle 50 clients at a time with 50 simultaneous VPN connections. Simultaneously, the largest is capable of managing up to 10,000 simultaneous connections, 1,500 of them over a VPN tunnel. That’s overkill for almost anyone, but the point is that if you like what Cisco’s Meraki range offers, there’s likely to be a piece of hardware that is perfect for your small business.
Small branch solutions like the MX64 offer cloud-based management with full stateful firewall protection. Additional security features include content filtering and advanced malware protection, and there’s an automated VPN configuration if you want to protect all of your outbound web connections.
Larger, more capable routers come with support for a greater number of connections and add support for extra SSIDs. All solutions also support USB modem connections for 3G/4G connectivity in case your standard internet connection fails, too.
$80 FROM AMAZON$74 FROM WALMART
OPNSense
You might need to supply your own hardware with OPNSense. Still, it’s a completely free, open-source, easy-to-use firewall solution that provides most of the same features you see on high-end, commercial firewalls from major developers. It enjoys weekly security updates, semi-annual releases of major platform updates, and there are extensive communities and documentation that can be mined to learn how to get to grips with it.
Although this isn’t necessarily the best starting point for beginners, OPNSense is still simple to manage through its web interface and is a fast and capable firewall suited to small networks as it is to ones at substantial organizations.
To get started with OPNSense, check out the beginner’s guide. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the type of hardware you will need to run it, the basic setup guidelines, and where to go from there.
Conclusion
A firewall is a network security system to check the data going in & out. It can be hardware or software depending on its configuration. It filters the data going outside & inward, even from inside to outside. A firewall protects as well as monitors each network resource or data as it goes in/out.