Updates and upgrades
Which firewalls are easiest to keep in the loop?
Keeping your firewall up to date is just a matter of common sense: not only does it give you better protection from bugs but it also prevents so-called zero-day and other exploits that rely on old or unpatched software. It’s also your best chance of ensuring compatibility for newer devices that connect to your network.
Still, once you’ve installed your firewall and have your network configuration options just so, there’s nothing more irritating than having to redo everything from scratch every time a new version is released. If the upgrade process is too difficult, network admins may skip important steps or, worse, not bother applying updates on a regular basis.
This is the reason we decided to put these firewalls through their paces when it comes to checking for and running updates. We looked into what kind of release cycle these distros follow (if any) and how easy it is to apply updates.