the internet firewall is a firewall appliance which is installed between the lan and the internet access device, such as an officeconnect?lan modem. the internet firewall is a complete network security system with all hardware and software pre-installed. this allows it to act as a secure gateway for all data passing between the internet and the lan.

    the purpose of the internet firewall is to allow a private local area network (lan) to be securely connected to the internet. you can use the internet firewall to:

    1 prevent theft, destruction, and modification of data.

    2 filter incoming data for unsafe or objectionable content.

    3 log events which may be important to the security of your network.

    the internet firewall has either two or three ethernet ports (depending on the model) which are used to divide the network into separate areas.

    1 the wide area network (wan) port attaches to the

    internet access device, for example, officeconnect lan

    modem, cable modem or sdsl router.

    2 the local area network (lan) port attaches to the local network through hubs and switches. lan users have access to internet services such as e-mail, ftp, and the world wide web. however, all workstations and data on the lan are protected from hacker attacks that might come through the wan port.

    3 on the officeconnect internet firewall dmz, there is a third port. the demilitarized zone (dmz) port is used for public servers, such as web or ftp servers. machines attached to this port are visible from the wan port, but are still protected from hacker attacks. users on the secure lan port can also access servers on the dmz port.