[lug] Firewalls

[David Morris]

The recent discussion on firewalls for DSL/Cable has brought up this
question:

What benefits, increased security, etc. does a stanalone firewall
(such as the linksys BEFSR41 mentioned) have over a LINUX box running
a firewall?  

Is it simply a matter of open source code?  Does the visibility of
LINUX code decrease security because anyone can search through it for
holes, or does it increase security by allowing anyone to go in and
fix those holes as fast as possible?

I am not looking for product endorsements, but rather a reason to use
one version of a firewall over the other.

--David