the effect of paranoia on performance

[cotfessi]

ok. I've been trying to read everything that I can on security in the last few days. It seems as though there are a thousand different options depending how paranoid you are. None of the articles or HOWTOs mention anything about a performance hit with all of the security tools in place.

I understand that Linux is very good about managing system resources, but what about my interent connection speed? If I'm subjecting every packet that comes through to a set of rules, doesn't that slow things down a bit?

Understand that I'd rather have a slower secure box than a corrupted speed demon, I'm just wondering what kind of a slow down if any I might expect.

thanks

- cotfessi