NETGEAR Connecting the FVS124G to the Internet, What You Will Need to Do Before You Begin

Chapter 4 Connecting the FVS124G to the Internet

This chapter describes how to connect the WAN ports of the FVS124G VPN Firewall to the Internet.

What You Will Need to Do Before You Begin

The FVS124G ProSafe VPN Firewall 25 with 4 Gigabit LAN and Dual WAN Ports is a powerful and versatile solution for your networking needs. But to make the configuration process easier and to understand all of the choices available to you, you need to think through the following items before you begin:

1.Plan your network

a.Determine whether you are going to use one or both WAN ports. For one WAN port, you may need a fully qualified domain name either for convenience or if you have a dynamic IP address.

b.If you are going to use both WAN ports, determine whether you are going to use them in rollover mode for increased system reliability or load balancing mode for maximum bandwidth efficiency. See Chapter 3, “Network Planning for more information. Your decision has the following implications:

•Fully qualified domain name

–For rollover mode, you are going to need a fully qualified domain name to implement features such as exposed hosts and virtual private networks.

–For load balancing mode, you may still need a fully qualified domain name either for convenience or if you have a dynamic IP address.

•Protocol binding

–For rollover mode, protocol binding does not apply.

–For load balancing mode, you need to decide which protocols you want to bind to a specific WAN port if you are going to take advantage of this option (you will make these selections in “Step 4: Configure the WAN Mode (Required for Dual WAN)” on page 4-15).

Connecting the FVS124G to the Internet 4-1

202-10085-01, March 2005