Netopia R7200 manual Chapter Security, Suggested security measures, User accounts

Security 14-1

Chapter 14

Security

The Netopia R7200 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 14-1

■“User accounts” on page 14-1

■“Dial-in console access” on page 14-3

■“Enable SmartStart/SmartView/Web server” on page 14-4

■“Telnet access” on page 14-4

■“About filters and filter sets” on page 14-4

■“Working with IP filters and filter sets” on page 14-12

■“IPX filters” on page 14-21.

■“Firewall tutorial” on page 14-29

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 R7200 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 R7200 through the serial console port to ensure that your communications cannot be intercepted.

User accounts

When you first set up and configure the Netopia R7200, 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.