Chapter 20 Firewall

20.3 What You Need To Know

The Router’s firewall feature physically separates the LAN and the WAN and acts as a secure gateway for all data passing between the networks.

It is designed to protect against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks when activated (click the General tab under Firewall and then click the Enable Firewall check box). The Router's purpose is to allow a private Local Area Network (LAN) to be securely connected to the Internet. The Router can be used to prevent theft, destruction and modification of data, as well as log events, which may be important to the security of your network.

The Router is installed between the LAN and a broadband modem connecting to the Internet. This allows it to act as a secure gateway for all data passing between the Internet and the LAN.

The Router has one Ethernet WAN port and four Ethernet LAN ports, which are used to physically separate the network into two areas.The WAN (Wide Area Network) port attaches to the broadband (cable or DSL) modem to the Internet.

The LAN (Local Area Network) port attaches to a network of computers, which needs security from the outside world. These computers will have access to Internet services such as e-mail, FTP and the World Wide Web. However, "inbound access" is not allowed (by default) unless the remote host is authorized to use a specific service.

20.4 General Firewall Screen

Use this screen to enable or disable the Router’s firewall, and set up firewall logs. Click Security > Firewall to open the General screen.

Figure 108 Security > Firewall > General

The following table describes the labels in this screen.

Table 69 Security > Firewall > General

LABEL

DESCRIPTION

Enable Firewall

Select this check box to activate the firewall. The Router performs access control and

 

protects against Denial of Service (DoS) attacks when the firewall is activated.

 

 

Apply

Click Apply to save the settings.

 

 

Reset

Click Reset to start configuring this screen again.

 

 

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NBG-419N v2 User’s Guide