Layer 2 firewalls ...

["Andrew K. Adams" <akadams () psc edu>]

Is anyone aware of any *disadvantages* of layer 2 firewalls?

Current marketing seems to be pushing layer 2 firewalls mostly, as far as I 
can tell, to reduce the possibility of the device being compromised (no ip 
address.)  And it seems to me, that any network using a media of Ethernet 
could (and should?) be doing this, unless of course, they needed the device 
to perform layer 3 or 4 utility (e.g., NAT), additionally.

I readily admit that I don't possess "link layer" expertise, and thus, I 
suspect that I must be missing something further, if layer 2 firewalls are 
indeed a trade-off.

Thanks!


-aka

--
Andrew K. Adams
Pittsburgh GigaPoP & Network Research Group
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center      Office: 306-A Mellon Institute
Carnegie Mellon University            Phone:  (412) 268-5142
4400 Fifth Ave.                       Fax:    (412) 268-8200
Pittsburgh, PA 15213                  WWW:    http://www.psc.edu/~akadams/

      D3 FA 7D 61 FD ED BD D9  0C DE 94 DB 0F 25 D0 2E

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