Firewalls are a combination of Hardware and Software. Its not that easy to decide which is the primary factor in this case. Actually this kind of topic is considered to be "Security" on other Forums. See my other comments in the "Windows XP" section under hardware firewalls.
I hope that everybody realizes that a firewall is nothing but a computer with 2 or more interfaces. The most common way to penetrate a firewall is to utilize weaknesses of the underlying OS or other features running on the same H/W. Therefor a firewall normally runs a stripped down version of a stable OS, Solaris and Linux are popular choices. But it's quite possible to write standalone S/W for a PC that even beats the marketleading CheckPoint (Firewall-1) and Cisco (Pix). Have a look at this test: http://sartryckr.idg.se/art/Brandvag...102001eng.html
[quote]Originally posted by kushkush: Once again if you are interested in building up
your own ( do it, man, it's hours of fun !!)
here are more details: