Kenneth Schneider wrote: > On Mon, 2007-06-18 at 11:00 +0100, Robert Best wrote: >>>> It is a Speedtouch ADSL modem. Don't know about firewall >>>> capabilities. > > The "firewall capabilities" used by most of these modems is called NAT > which stands for Network Address Translation ( there are other features > available ). What this basically does is prevent an outside connection > to an inside PC because there is no direct access via an outside IP > address to an internal IP address. When you request an outside > connection, lets say a connection to a web site, the modem automagically > provides a temporary connection for you and drops it when the request > has ended ( the web page has been loaded ).
Yes, exactly. I've never understood the Wild Eyed(tm) insistence on a firewall, as I imagine there very few installations where a user's computer is directly on the Internet these days. I always run behind a router, and thus don't need a firewall. If you have your cable modem plugged into a switch or router (ie, if your computer is on a 192.168 network), you don't need a firewall. And yet I can't get Windows to stop complaining about the fact I don't have the firewall turned on. Jeez! -- Jonathan Arnold (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) Daemon Dancing in the Dark, an Open OS weblog: http://freebsd.amazingdev.com/blog/ UNIX is user-friendly. It's just a bit picky about who its friends are. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
