Packet Filter Benefits

The packet filter firewall provides basic albeit unsophisticated security to a network. It can prevent packet oriented attacks originating from outside the protected network.

It has the additional benefits of being very fast and easy to setup and maintain.

It is fast because routers are well suited to perform the binary comparisons necessary for packet filtering. Routers are especially fast when the comparisons are done by the router's network card. This means that the router based firewall is unlikely to become a bottleneck for the network.

The packet filter firewall is easy to setup and maintain because it requires only basic configuring of IP addresses and Internet services by the end user for the initial setup. It then requires little or no maintenance once it is configured.