Hello
Firewalls are difficult to understand and configure, even for experienced computer users. If you've been putting off installing a firewall, or if you aren't sure how to determine whether your firewall is protecting you fully, I'm here to explain it all.
According to Merriam-Webster, the original meaning of fire wall was "a wall constructed to prevent the spread of fire." Computer firewalls are constructed to prevent unwanted intrusions from the Internet into your PC. But unlike fire, Net threats don't leap onto your machine through mere proximity. They arise when someone exploits a combination of your PC's unique IP (Internet protocol) address and one or more of the thousands of TCP (transmission control protocol) and UDP (universal datagram protocol) ports that serve as the door to your system.
I think you should go with both options hardware and software combination of Firewalls becaruse both are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. The very important aspect is all messages inflowing or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which inspects each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.
Go for the hardware and software firewalls combination. It is best that you should give the best security support out there to your system. Hehe you know as the thought/message says "prevention is better than cure". So go for it, use both for preventive and security purposes.
If you are running critical applications I would you recommend you to go with hardware firewall because you can block the packets in layer level and much easier.