Netopia 4753 manual Chapter Security, Suggested Security Measures, User Accounts

Security 13-1

Chapter 13

Security

The Netopia 4753 provides a number of security features to help protect its configuration screens and your local network from unauthorized access. Although these features are optional, it is strongly recommended that you use them.

This section covers the following topics:

■“Suggested Security Measures” on page 13-1

■“User Accounts” on page 13-1

■“Telnet Access” on page 13-3

■“About Filters and Filter Sets” on page 13-4

■“Working with IP Filters and Filter Sets” on page 13-11

■“Firewall Tutorial” on page 13-19

■“RADIUS Client Support” on page 13-30

Suggested Security Measures

In addition to setting up user accounts, Telnet access, and filters (all of which are covered later in this chapter), there are other actions you can take to make the Netopia 4753 and your network more secure:

■Change the SNMP community strings (or passwords). The default community strings are universal and could easily be known to a potential intruder.

■Set the answer profile so it must match incoming calls to a connection profile.

■Leave the Enable Dial-in Console Access option set to No.

■When using AURP, accept connections only from configured partners.

■Configure the Netopia 4753 through the serial console port to ensure that your communications cannot be intercepted.

User Accounts

When you first set up and configure the Netopia 4753, no passwords are required to access the configuration screens. Anyone could tamper with the router’s configuration by simply connecting it to a console.

However, by adding user accounts, you can protect the most sensitive screens from unauthorized access. User accounts are composed of name/password combinations that can be given to authorized users.