Security And Firewall Protection; Firewall Protection And Content Filtering Overview; Using Rules To Block Or Allow Specific Kinds Of Traffic - NETGEAR ProSafe DGFV338 Reference Manual

Chapter 4

Security and Firewall Protection

This chapter describes how to use the Security features of the ProSafe Wireless ADSL Modem
VPN Firewall Router to protect your network. These features can be found by selecting Security
from the main menu of the browser interface.

Firewall Protection and Content Filtering Overview

The ProSafe Wireless ADSL Modem VPN Firewall Router provides Web Content filtering—by
Domain name (Web sites) and by Keyword Blocking. Browsing activity reporting and instant
alerts via e-mail provide reports on Content Filtering activities. Parents and network
administrators can establish restricted access policies based on time-of-day, specific Web
Components, Web sites and Web address keywords. You can also block Internet access by
applications and services, such as chat or games.
A firewall is a special category of router that protects one network (the "trusted" network, such as
your LAN) from another (the untrusted network, such as the Internet), while allowing
communication between the two.
A firewall incorporates the functions of a NAT (Network Address Translation) router, while
adding features for dealing with a hacker intrusion or attack, and for controlling the types of traffic
that can flow between the two networks. Unlike simple Internet sharing NAT routers, a firewall
uses a process called stateful packet inspection to protect your network from attacks and
intrusions. NAT performs a very limited stateful inspection in that it considers whether the
incoming packet is in response to an outgoing request, but true Stateful Packet Inspection goes far
beyond NAT.

Using Rules to Block or Allow Specific Kinds of Traffic

Firewall rules are used to block or allow specific traffic passing through from one side to the other.
Inbound rules (WAN to LAN) restrict access by outsiders to private resources, selectively allowing
only specific outside users to access specific resources. Outbound rules (LAN to WAN) determine
what outside resources local users can have access to.
Security and Firewall Protection 4-1
v1.0, April 2007