Which term describes a network device that protects resources by filtering traffic at the network's gateway?

Which term describes a network device that protects resources by filtering traffic at the network's gateway?

• A. Firewall
• B. Software Firewall
• C. Hardware Firewall
• D. Intrusion Prevention System

Answer: (A)

Filtering traffic at the network boundary to enforce access rules is the job of a firewall. A firewall acts as the gatekeeper between networks, inspecting packets and permitting or denying them based on predefined policies such as source/destination IPs, ports, and protocols. It can be implemented as hardware (a dedicated firewall appliance) or software (a firewall program running on a host), or as a combination of both. The term describes the device responsible for this boundary protection. A software firewall refers to the programmatic version that runs on a host, which can protect individual machines rather than the entire network edge. A hardware firewall is a dedicated device placed at the gateway to filter traffic for the whole network. An intrusion prevention system focuses on detecting and blocking known threats and anomalies and may be deployed inline, but the label that best captures the concept of filtering at the gateway itself is firewall.

Filtering traffic at the network boundary to enforce access rules is the job of a firewall. A firewall acts as the gatekeeper between networks, inspecting packets and permitting or denying them based on predefined policies such as source/destination IPs, ports, and protocols. It can be implemented as hardware (a dedicated firewall appliance) or software (a firewall program running on a host), or as a combination of both. The term describes the device responsible for this boundary protection.

A software firewall refers to the programmatic version that runs on a host, which can protect individual machines rather than the entire network edge. A hardware firewall is a dedicated device placed at the gateway to filter traffic for the whole network. An intrusion prevention system focuses on detecting and blocking known threats and anomalies and may be deployed inline, but the label that best captures the concept of filtering at the gateway itself is firewall.