connection speed with firewall

A bad one slows it down a lot, a good one makes no noticeable difference.

The funny thing about firewalls is that there is almost always a trade-off between speed and security. If you want to be secure, the firewall needs to look more closely at and do more work on each packet, and that means added latency, lower throughput.

For example, the 2.8GBps rating of the Sidewinder G2 is only achievable (IIRC) by turning off the strictest "application proxy" security checks and using it as if it were a stateful inspection packet filter like the (much cheaper) Cisco PIX.

Personally, if I know I'm going to be under attack, I'd rather have a tank than a Formula One racer.

Kevin Kadow

-- Moderator, unofficial Sidewinder Users group