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CHAPTER 1

Overview of Major

Capabilities

The Motorola Netopia® Gateway offers simplified setup and management features as well

as advanced broadband Gateway capabilities. The following are some of the main features

of the Motorola Netopia® Gateway:

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“

W

ide Ar

ea Network T

er

mination

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12

The Gateway combines an ADSL modem with an Internet Gateway. It translates proto-

cols used on the Internet to protocols used by home personal computers and elimi-

nates the need for special desktop software (i.e. PPPoE).

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“

Simplifi

ed Local Ar

ea Network Setup

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Built-in DHCP and DNS proxy features minimize or eliminate the need to program any

network configuration into your home personal computer. UPnP™ feature allows ease of

connection with many compatible networked devices.

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Management

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A Web server built into the Motorola Netopia® Operating System makes setup and

maintenance easy using standard browsers. Diagnostic tools facilitate troubleshooting.

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Security

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Network Address Translation (NAT), password protection, Stateful Inspection firewall

and other built-in security features prevent unauthorized remote access to your network.

NAT Games and other services, default server, and other features permit access to

computers on your home network that you can specify. VPN technology (standard VPN

Passthrough and optional IPSec tunnelling) enables telecommuters, mobile workforce

and branch offices to safely and affordably connect to a remote business network, for

effective communication and collaboration.

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Wide Area Network Termination

PPPoE/PPPoA (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet/ATM)

The PPPoE specification, incorporating the PPP and Ethernet standards, allows your com-

puter(s) to connect to your Service Provider’s network through your Ethernet WAN connec-

tion. The 2200 and 3300-series Gateway supports PPPoE, eliminating the need to install

PPPoE client software on any LAN computers.

Service Providers may require the use of PPP authentication protocols such as Challenge

Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) or Password Authentication Protocol (PAP).

CHAP and PAP use a username and password pair to authenticate users with a PPP server.

A CHAP authentication process works as follows:

1.

The password is used to scramble a challenge string.

2.

The password is a shared secret, known by both peers.

3.

The unit sends the scrambled challenge back to the peer.

PAP, a less robust method of authentication, sends a username and password to a PPP

server to be authenticated. PAP’s username and password pair are not encrypted, and are

therefore sent “unscrambled”.

Instant-On PPP

You can configure your Gateway for one of two types of Internet connections:

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Always On

•

Instant On

These selections provide either an uninterrupted Internet connection or an as-needed con-

nection.

While an Always On connection is convenient, it does leave your network permanently con-

nected to the Internet, and therefore potentially vulnerable to attacks.

Motorola Netopia®'s Instant On technology furnishes almost all the benefits of an Always-

On connection while providing two additional security benefits:

•

Your network cannot be attacked when it is not connected.

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Wide Area Network Termination

•

Your network may change address with each connection making it more difficult to

attack.

When you configure Instant On access, you can also configure an idle time-out value. Your

Gateway monitors traffic over the Internet link and when there has been no traffic for the

configured number of seconds, it disconnects the link.

When new traffic that is destined for the Internet arrives at the Gateway, the Gateway will

instantly re-establish the link.

Your service provider may be using a system that assigns the Internet address of your

Gateway out of a pool of many possible Internet addresses. The address assigned varies

with each connection attempt, which makes your network a moving target for any attacker.

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Simplified Local Area Network Setup

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) Server

DHCP Server functionality enables the Gateway to assign to your LAN computer(s) a “pri-

vate” IP address and other parameters that allow network communication. The default

DHCP Server configuration of the Gateway supports up to 253 LAN IP addresses.

This feature simplifies network administration because the Gateway maintains a list of IP

address assignments. Additional computers can be added to your LAN without the hassle

of configuring an IP address.

DNS Proxy

Domain Name System (DNS) provides end users with the ability to look for devices or web

sites by typing their names, rather than IP addresses. For web surfers, this technology

allows you to enter the URL (Universal Resource Locator) as text to surf to a desired web-

site.

The Motorola Netopia® DNS Proxy feature allows the LAN-side IP address of the Gateway

to be used for proxying DNS requests from hosts on the LAN to the DNS Servers config-

ured in the gateway. This is accomplished by having the Gateway's LAN address handed

out as the “DNS Server” to the DHCP clients on the LAN.

☛

NOTE:

The Motorola Netopia® DNS Proxy only proxies UDP DNS queries, not TCP

DNS queries.

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Simplified Local Area Network Setup

UPnP™

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP™) is a set of protocols that allows a PC to automatically dis-

cover other UPnP devices (anything from an internet gateway device to a light switch),

retrieve an XML description of the device and its services, control the device, and sub-

scribe to real-time event notification. PCs using UPnP can retrieve the Gateway’s WAN IP

address, and automatically create NAT port maps. This means that applications that sup-

port UPnP, and are used with a UPnP-enabled Motorola Netopia® Gateway, will not need

application layer gateway support on the Motorola Netopia® Gateway to work through NAT.

By default, UPnP is enabled on the Motorola Netopia® Gateway.