We are considering getting Roadrunner cable service at work, which would be great as we’re all tired of waiting forever to go from one web page to another or download files. My concern is keeping hackers off our server. I asked two people their opinion on software and hardware firewalls. The first guy I asked (who we bought our whole computer network from) recommended a hardware solution (no surprise there). The other guy is the one we bought our accounting package from and he recommended a software firewall. Anybody out there with experience with this conundrum? Hardware? Software? Or both working together? Any and all input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks to all.
Try Zone Alarm. It is free, or the professional version is something like $19.95. Really reasonable. You can get it at http://www.zonelabs.com . Assuming that you get Zone Alarm and install it, go to Steve Gibsons site at http://grc.com and run his tests. If you have a fast connection, try it before you install ZA and then again after you install ZA. You will be surprized.
One thing to keep in mind is that software firewalls (the good ones, anyway) are generally much better at dealing with unwanted connections originating from your computer, like spyware and trojans, than hardware solutions. The best option is probably to use both hardware and software, especially since you can get the software for free.
Could you give more information on your network, the server/s you’re most worried about, and so on. I’m afraid it really is an “it depends” answer.
Search here on the SDMB in “General Questions”, and use the keyword “Linksys”, and you will find several threads dealing with this topic, with lots of good advice on the software and hardware front.
Mr. Goo would love to help you, but when he started trying to explain it to me so I could post it to you, we degenerated to using ASCII art and basically didn’t get anywhere.
Mr. Goo is employed setting up and maintaining networks, so is qualified to help, and like all good nerds/geeks loves to helps others while muttering all sorts of acronyms under his breath.
Anyway, if you would like a goo-y response (pun intended) send him an email to mrgoo@torana-mania.com (it’s a hyphen, not an underscore!) 
As you describe things, I assume you’ve got multiple users at work. I recommend you get a dedicated firewall for your site. It’s much easier to manage one central spot then software on individual users machines.
It’s highly likely that your cable modem provider will give you a router with firewalling capability built in, so you may not have to buy anything.
I’m not going to make any suggestions as to what kind of firewall you should use to protect your network, as there are many factors contributing to a proper response, but I will describe for you my home network, which is also connected to a roadrunner cable modem.
In my room I have my gigahertz athlon and my G3 mac as general use computers. I also have about 10 power mac 7200/120’s performing different tasks, mailserver, webserver, ftp server, etc. They are all connected to a 24 port hub, which is in turn connected to a 5 port switch. My dad’s “office” downstairs is also connected to switch, and he has a hub downstairs with all of his computers connected to it. I have a redhat 7.2 Linux machine that I set up as a packet masquerader and firewall. It is directly connected to the cable and allows all the machines within the network to access, as well as allows the internal servers on the 7200’s. I’ve been working under this setup for quite some time and it works great, Linux is very robust and (with a little effort) can be powerful as a firewall and packet masquerader. Best of all its free (if you have a fast enough connection and a cd burner).
I don’t know anything about the size of your company, cost requirements or your hardware set-up, but one of the most common and seemingly most highly regarded firewall products is Checkpoint FireWall-1.
Some comparison sites found from a very quick Google: