NETGEAR FVS318N manual Security Features, Autosensing Ethernet Connections with Auto Uplink

ProSafe Wireless-N 8-Port Gigabit VPN Firewall FVS318N

Security Features

The wireless VPN firewall is equipped with several features designed to maintain security:

•Computers hidden by NAT. NAT opens a temporary path to the Internet for requests originating from the local network. Requests originating from outside the LAN are discarded, preventing users outside the LAN from finding and directly accessing the computers on the LAN.

•Port forwarding with NAT. Although NAT prevents Internet locations from directly accessing the computers on the LAN, the wireless VPN firewall allows you to direct incoming traffic to specific computers based on the service port number of the incoming request.

•DMZ port. Incoming traffic from the Internet is usually discarded by the wireless VPN firewall unless the traffic is a response to one of your local computers or a service for which you have configured an inbound rule. Instead of discarding this traffic, you can use the dedicated demilitarized zone (DMZ) port to forward the traffic to one computer on your network.

Autosensing Ethernet Connections with Auto Uplink

With its internal eight-port 10/100/1000 Mbps switch and 10/100/1000 WAN port, the wireless VPN firewall can connect to either a 10 Mbps standard Ethernet network, a 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet network, or a 1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet network. The LAN and WAN interfaces are autosensing and capable of full-duplex or half-duplex operation.

The wireless VPN firewall incorporates Auto UplinkTM technology. Each Ethernet port automatically senses whether the Ethernet cable plugged into the port should have a normal connection such as to a computer or an uplink connection such as to a switch or hub. That port then configures itself correctly. This feature eliminates the need for you to think about crossover cables, as Auto Uplink accommodates either type of cable to make the right connection.

Extensive Protocol Support

The wireless VPN firewall supports the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and Routing Information Protocol (RIP). The wireless VPN firewall provides the following protocol support:

•IP address sharing by NAT. The wireless VPN firewall allows many networked computers to share an Internet account using only a single IP address, which might be statically or dynamically assigned by your Internet service provider (ISP). This technique, known as Network Address Translation (NAT), allows the use of an inexpensive single-user ISP account.

•Automatic configuration of attached computers by DHCP. The wireless VPN firewall dynamically assigns network configuration information, including IP, gateway, and Domain Name Server (DNS) addresses, to attached computers on the LAN using the

Introduction

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