About Using Policies In Your Network - Watchguard Firebox X15 User Manual

7
Firewall Policies
About policies
The Firebox uses two categories of policies to filter network traffic: packet filters and proxies. A packet filter
examines each packet's IP and TCP/UDP header. If the packet header information is legitimate, then the
Firebox allows the packet. Otherwise, the Firebox drops the packet. A proxy also examines the header
information, but it also examines the content. When you activate a proxy, the Firebox uses deep packet
inspection to make sure that connections are secure. It opens each packet in sequence, removes the network
layer header, and examines the packet's payload. Finally, the proxy puts the network information back on the
packet and sends it to its destination.
The Firebox includes many pre-configured packet filters and proxies that you can add to your configuration.
For example, if you want a packet filter for all Telnet traffic, you add a pre-defined Telnet policy that you can
modify for your needs. You can also make a custom policy for which you set the ports, protocols, and other
parameters.
We refer to packet filters and proxies together as policies. Unless we tell you differently, information on
policies refers to both proxies and packet filters.

About using policies in your network

The security policy of your organization is a set of rules that define how you protect your computer network
and the information that goes through it. The Firebox denies all packets that are not specifically allowed. This
security policy helps to protect your network from:
Attacks that use new or different IP protocols
Unknown applications
When you configure your Firebox X Edge using the Quick Setup Wizard, the Edge only allows limited outgoing
connectivity. If you have more software applications and network traffic for the Edge to examine, you must:
Configure the policies on the Edge to let necessary traffic through
Set the approved hosts and properties for each policy
Balance the requirement to protect your network against the requirements of your users to get access
to external resources
We recommend that you set limits on outgoing access when you configure your Firebox.
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