Many firewall products are available for small businesses and those working from home. SOHO (small office/home office) VPN hardware firewalls are often built on a secure virtual private network (VPN) connection to the company network to transfer email and sensitive files. Consider a SOHO network one in which there are typically 25 or fewer computers and devices on the network.

In many cases, the SOHO firewalls have additional features, such as an antivirus tool, IP filtering, web content filtering, router options (router/firewall combinations), intrusion detection, and denial of service (DoS)/distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack detection. Some of the firewalls come with a Linux or Linux-like OS and use ipchains to manage their filter rules.

A SOHO VPN hardware firewall is the best solution when you already have a working network and want to provide remote access. For example, you may already connect your personal computers within your office. If you want to open a new office in another location, you could connect both offices with a SOHO VPN firewall at each office. It will create a secure connection to transfer sensitive data (bank information, customer information, or company-related information) from one office to the other. Another example is a mobile worker, such as a salesperson working in the field. The salesperson could use the VPN’s secure connection to access company files and presentations or customer-related information directly from the company office, even when working in the field.

Recall that a firewall allows you to restrict unauthorized access between the Internet and an internal network. It exists to block unauthorized connections and keep outside attackers from penetrating the internal network. It also prevents inside connections from reaching out to the Internet without authorization. By monitoring inside users, firewalls can prevent the sending of sensitive information, such as personally identifiable information or sensitive corporate data to the Internet.