What is the function of a Firewall in a network environment?

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A firewall is a standard piece of technology that is present in virtually every corporate network. As a networking engineer, you should be thoroughly familiar with this technology and describe its use. In addition, based on your research before the interview, you should know the type of firewalls the organization uses and be sure to mention them in your answer.

"A Firewall is a network security system that protects computer networks from malicious or unauthorized access. It can also be configured to allow limited access to specific users. A firewall consists of a hardware device or software program or a combination of these. All the data that encounters the firewall are scanned against specified security criteria. Data packets meeting the criteria are allowed through the network, and those that don't meet the criteria are blocked. Firewalls can be configured and updated as the organization's needs evolve and help to provide control over the network's access and security features."

Anonymous Answer

"A firewall provides a boundary for access control into and out of a network environment. A firewall will filter traffic by primarily permitting or denying traffic depending on the rules within a firewall that provides a boundary or perimeter protection into and out of a network environment. Firewalls ensure that only traffic that is allowed to get into a network goes through instead of unwanted or malicious traffic. Next-generation firewalls and stateful firewalls now only allow traffic back into an environment if it originated from that environment and out through the firewall, so it's bidirectional."

Stephanie's Feedback

You do a good job of highlighting the function of a firewall in a network environment. You have a lot of knowledge in this content area, but I suggest personalizing your response to show that you've used some of these technical functions in your previous roles.