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Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 12:37:45 -0800
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X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 4.4
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Subject: Hardware vs software firewall on FreeBSD
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I'm upgrading the hardware on my webserver.  It will run FreeBSD 4.9.

I need to decide whether to use a hardware firewall (Cisco) or use ipfw,
ipf, pf, etc.

The hardware firewall will increase my monthly server rental bill by
almost 30%.  So I'm wondering if the significant extra cost is worth it.

What kind of performance hit will result from using ipfw, ipf or pf?

I would like to avoid the extra expense of the hardware firewall.

Can anyone offer an opinion on this matter?  Any good reasons to use one
over the other?

Mark L.