Security; What Is A Firewall - NETGEAR FR114P Reference Manual

Chapter 5

Security

This chapter describes how to use the security features of your FR114P, FR114W or FM114P
Cable/DSL ProSafe Firewall. The firewall provides you with selective blocking of inbound and
outbound services, Web content filtering by keyword, and with security incident logging. You can
configure the firewall to e-mail its log to you at specified intervals. You can also configure the
firewall to send immediate alert messages to your e-mail address or e-mail pager whenever a
significant security event occurs.
To configure these features of your firewall, click on the subheadings under the Security heading
in the Main Menu of the browser interface.

What is a Firewall

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.
Security 5-1