Network Security devices are typically physical or virtualized hardware appliances, with vendor specific software installed. Occasionally, businesses purchase commodity server hardware and install custom software to create their own network security device. A. Quick Answer: A hardware firewall is a dedicated physical device that monitors and filters network traffic between your internal network and the internet, providing superior security through dedicated processing power and isolation from the systems it protects. Historically, operating systems with networking capabilities were classified as network operating systems because they enabled personal computers (PCs) to.