Managing Groups And Hosts; Creating The Network Database - NETGEAR ProSafe FVS338 Reference Manual

Managing Groups and Hosts

The Known PCs and Devices table on the Groups and Hosts screen contains a list of all known
PCs and network devices, as well as hosts, that are assigned dynamic IP addresses by this router.
Collectively, these entries make up the Network Database. The Network Database is created in two
ways:
• Using the DHCP Server. The router's DHCP server will accept and respond to DHCP client
requests from PCs and other network devices. Every computer that is responded to will be
added to the Network Database in the Known PCs and Devices table.
• Scanning the Network. The router will scan the local network periodically, using standard
methods such as ARP and NetBIOS, to detect active computers or devices which are not
DHCP clients. For computers that do not support the NetBIOS protocol, the name will be
displayed in the known PCs and Devices table as "Unknown".

Creating the Network Database

The Network Database offers a number of advantages:
• Generally, you do not need to enter either IP address or MAC addresses. Instead, you can just
select the desired PC or device.
• No need to reserve an IP address for a PC in the DHCP Server. All IP address assignments
made by the DHCP Server will be maintained until the PC or device is removed from the
database, either by expiry (inactive for a long time) or by you.
• No need to use a Fixed IP on PCs. Because the address allocated by the DHCP Server will
never change, you don't need to assign a fixed IP to a PC to ensure it always has the same IP
address.
• MAC-level Control over PCs. The Network Database uses the MAC address to identify each
PC or device. So changing a PC's IP address does not affect any restrictions on that PC.
• Group and Individual Control over PCs
– You can assign PCs to Groups and apply restrictions to each Group using the Firewall
Rules screen (see
– You can also select the Groups to be covered by the Block Sites feature (see
Block Sites (Content Filtering)" on page
– If necessary, you can also create Firewall Rules to apply to a single PC (see
Source MAC Filtering" on page
PC, users cannot avoid these restrictions by changing their IP address.
LAN Configuration
FVS338 ProSafe VPN Firewall 50 Reference Manual
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