General Information on Connections

The Connection function allows you to control the type of network traffic that can take place between two network entities that are connected through the Firewall. They permit or deny specified types of communications between two named endpoints or any type of network object or group.

After you have defined your network objects and services, you create connections. In building connections, you will select one network object to be the source and another network object to be the destination for the traffic flow through the Firewall.

The figure below illustrates what Connections are composed of and how they function in the Firewall.

Further Information

Controlling Traffic Through the Firewall
Examples of Connections: Proxy Telnet
Examples of Connections: Routed Telnet
Examples of Connections: Proxy HTTP

Connection 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.

Icon Key

Create new connection configuration
Connection configuration

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.

Move

The "Move" button allows you to re-order the Connections in this list. To move an item from one location to another, complete the following steps:
  1. Select the to-be-moved item.
  2. Hold down the "Ctrl" key and select the item above where you want the to-be-moved item to be placed. You should now have exactly 2 items selected and the "Move" button should be enabled. If you wish for the item to be moved to the top of the list, you can select the "NEW" item as the location item.
  3. Click "Move" to place the item in its new location.
The order of this list is important because Connection Rules are generated sequentially on the basis of the ordering in this list. And the order of generated Connection Rules is important because of the manner in which traffic datagrams are checked to determine whether they are permitted or denied. Each traffic datagram is checked starting at the top of the list of generated Connection Rules. The first rule that the datagram matches is the rule that will determine the action to be taken on the datagram (each rule has a "permit" or "deny" action associated with it).

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.

Activate (Connections)

Press this button to access the Connection Activation window.