A Hardware Firewall is a physical device that is connected between your
computer and the modem. Like a software firewall that runs as software
on your computer, a hardware firewall is designed to prevent unauthorized
users from gaining access to your computer network and from monitoring the
transfers of data to and from the computer.
A computer router is a device in a network that handles message transfer
between computers. Some routers provide hardware firewall
capabilities.
For maximum Internet security, consider implementing both a software and
hardware firewall (as depicted in this diagram).
