P-662H/HW-D Series User’s Guide
Chapter 10 Firewalls
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• Allow certain types of traffic from the Internet to specific hosts on the LAN.
• Allow access to a Web server to everyone but competitors.
• Restrict use of certain protocols, such as Telnet, to authorized users on the LAN.
These custom rules work by evaluating the network traffic’s Source IP address, Destination IP
address, IP protocol type, and comparing these to rules set by the administrator.
Note:
The ability to define firewall rules is a very powerful tool. Using custom rules, it
is possible to disable all firewall protection or block all access to the Internet.
Use extreme caution when creating or deleting firewall rules. Test changes
after creating them to make sure they work correctly.
Below is a brief technical description of how these connections are tracked. Connections may
either be defined by the upper protocols (for instance, TCP), or by the ZyXEL Device itself (as
with the "virtual connections" created for UDP and ICMP).
10.5.3 TCP Security
The ZyXEL Device uses state information embedded in TCP packets. The first packet of any
new connection has its SYN flag set and its ACK flag cleared; these are "initiation" packets.
All packets that do not have this flag structure are called "subsequent" packets, since they
represent data that occurs later in the TCP stream.
If an initiation packet originates on the WAN, this means that someone is trying to make a
connection from the Internet into the LAN. Except in a few special cases (see "Upper Layer
Protocols" shown next), these packets are dropped and logged.
If an initiation packet originates on the LAN, this means that someone is trying to make a
connection from the LAN to the Internet. Assuming that this is an acceptable part of the
security policy (as is the case with the default policy), the connection will be allowed. A cache
entry is added which includes connection information such as IP addresses, TCP ports,
sequence numbers, etc.
When the ZyXEL Device receives any subsequent packet (from the Internet or from the LAN),
its connection information is extracted and checked against the cache. A packet is only
allowed to pass through if it corresponds to a valid connection (that is, if it is a response to a
connection which originated on the LAN).
10.5.4 UDP/ICMP Security
UDP and ICMP do not themselves contain any connection information (such as sequence
numbers). However, at the very minimum, they contain an IP address pair (source and
destination). UDP also contains port pairs, and ICMP has type and code information. All of
this data can be analyzed in order to build "virtual connections" in the cache.
For instance, any UDP packet that originates on the LAN will create a cache entry. Its IP
address and port pairs will be stored. For a short period of time, UDP packets from the WAN
that have matching IP and UDP information will be allowed back in through the firewall.
Summary of Contents for 802.11g ADSL 2+ 4-Port Security Gateway HW-D Series
Page 2: ......
Page 10: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 10 Customer Support ...
Page 24: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 24 Table of Contents ...
Page 32: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 32 List of Figures ...
Page 38: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 38 List of Tables ...
Page 64: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 64 Chapter 2 Introducing the Web Configurator ...
Page 84: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 84 Chapter 4 Bandwidth Management Wizard ...
Page 108: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 108 Chapter 5 WAN Setup ...
Page 122: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 122 Chapter 6 LAN Setup ...
Page 156: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 156 Chapter 8 DMZ ...
Page 202: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 202 Chapter 11 Firewall Configuration ...
Page 210: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 210 Chapter 12 Anti Virus Packet Scan ...
Page 214: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 214 Chapter 13 Content Filtering ...
Page 232: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 232 Chapter 14 Content Access Control ...
Page 238: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 238 Chapter 15 Introduction to IPSec ...
Page 273: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide Chapter 17 Certificates 273 Figure 144 My Certificate Details ...
Page 292: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 292 Chapter 18 Static Route ...
Page 304: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 304 Chapter 19 Bandwidth Management ...
Page 308: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 308 Chapter 20 Dynamic DNS Setup ...
Page 332: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 332 Chapter 22 Universal Plug and Play UPnP ...
Page 338: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 338 Chapter 23 System ...
Page 344: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 344 Chapter 24 Logs ...
Page 350: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 350 Chapter 25 Tools ...
Page 364: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 364 Chapter 27 Troubleshooting ...
Page 368: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 368 Product Specifications ...
Page 372: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 372 Appendix C Wall mounting Instructions ...
Page 408: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 408 Appendix F Wireless LANs ...
Page 420: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 420 Appendix H Command Interpreter ...
Page 436: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 436 Appendix L NetBIOS Filter Commands ...
Page 462: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 462 Appendix M Internal SPTGEN ...
Page 484: ...P 662H HW D Series User s Guide 484 Appendix P Triangle Route ...