General Information on Network Objects

The Network Objects function allows you to maintain information about network addressable components on your network. This function acts as a central repository for use by other functions in the Firewall. Primarily, network objects are used to designate source and destination addresses when you create your connections. Individual network objects can be placed into groups. Use of these groups can save time when configuring connections. Key elements that should be defined as network objects include:

The figure below illustrates how network objects can become part of a connection configuration.

Tip for Configuring Network Objects

Wherever possible, it is a good idea to encompass contiguous network addresses into a single network object, rather than creating a network group. This will help to improve the performance of the connection rule processing. For example, if you have a set of contiguous addresses such as the following:
ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT
 
   George 191.1.10.1
   Susan  191.1.10.3
   Helen  191.1.10.5
   Peter  191.1.10.7
   John   191.1.10.9
You could represent all of these addresses with a single network object (IP address = 191.1.10.0, subnet mask = 255.255.255.0). For purposes of improving the performance of rule processing, this would be much more efficient than if each of these addresses had been placed into one network group.

Further Information

Network Objects

Network Objects List

The list shows the current values used by the Firewall for this function. To select, click on the row desired and then select an action by clicking a button on the right.

A group is a collection of network objects. To define a group, double-click NEW GROUP. The Add a Network Object menu appears.

Icon Key

Create new
Host
User
Group of Network objects
Network object signifying network
Firewall host

Search

In the "Search" field, enter a character or set of characters that you wish to find in the list. Click the "Find" button to execute the search. Note that this function is an alphabetical search through the "Name" column of the list only. Note also that if the set of characters is not matched, the closest approximate set of characters will be selected.

Find

After entering a character or set of characters in the "Search" field, click the "Find" button to execute the search. Note that this function is an alphabetical search through the "Name" column of the list onlyNote also that if the set of characters is not matched, the closest approximate set of characters will be selected.

Top

Click "Top" to move to the top of the list.

Bottom

Click "Bottom" to move to the bottom of the list.

Open

After selecting an item on the list, press the "Open" button to view or modify that item. To add a new item, select "NEW" item on the list and press "Open".

Copy

The "Copy" button helps save time when adding new items to the list. After selecting an item on the list, press the "Copy" button to create an item that is similar to the selected item. Pressing the "Copy" button will open a new item that will copy field values from the item that was selected on the list. You will then be able to modify field values as needed for the new item.

Delete

Press the "Delete" button to delete a selected item from the list.

Close

Press the "Close" button to eliminate the window from your display.

Refresh

Click "Refresh" to re-access the data from the Firewall and re-display the data on this panel.