Firewall Protection and Content Filtering
4-1
v1.0, September 2007
Chapter 4
Firewall Protection and Content Filtering
This chapter describes how to use the content filtering features of the ProSafe 802.11g Wireless
VPN Firewall to protect your network. These features can be found by clicking on the
Security
heading in the main menu of the browser interface.
Firewall Protection and Content Filtering Overview
The ProSafe 802.11g Wireless VPN Firewall FVG318 provides you with Web content filtering
options, plus browsing activity reporting and instant alerts via e-mail. Parents and network
administrators can establish restricted access policies based on time-of-day, Web addresses 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.
To configure these features of your firewall, click on the
Security > Block Sites
heading in the
main menu of the browser interface. The Content Filtering features are described below:
Block Sites
The FVG318 supports content filtering which allows you to block access to certain Internet sites.
Up to 32 words in an Internet sites name (for example, a website URL) can be specified causing
the site to be blocked.