Firewall Protection

NetworkShield Firewall filters packets on the network level. Each packet going through the server is checked for compliance with access policies. Only packets from allowed connections get into the network. If there is a blocking rule set for a connection, the packet will be blocked.

By default, connections that have no access rules specified for them are also blocked. Changes in the access policy are applied right when they are made.

NetworkShield Firewall supports the Stateful Inspection (ACC) technology, which allows you to increase the protection against unauthorized access to the company's network.

The work of the Firewall is based on chains of rules and allows you to configure security policies in the most simple and clear way.

Powerful NAT

A specially developed engine supporting the NAT technology is used to provide secure access to the Internet and any other networks. The NAT (Network Address Translation) mechanism allows you to translate addresses from private networks into one address in a public network when private network clients access the public network. The NAT technology allows you to limit direct access to data in your network. Thus, all attacks from the public network are directed to a safely protected NetworkShield Firewall server, while LAN clients remain unavailable for malicious access.

The NAT mechanism implemented in the NetworkShield Firewall engine works independently of the client configuration and does not require the installation of some special software. More then three years proved the high security and performance of the NAT technology engine developed for NetworkShield Firewall. The NetworkShield Firewall engine allows clients to work correctly via the FTP protocol in both passive and active modes and in all network relationship modes (NAT or Route).

Multi-Network support

NetworkShield Firewall allows you to configure your network based on logical objects of private (trusted) and public (untrusted) networks. It is possible to configure access policies for each network independent of the network type (private, public) and the parameters of security policies set for other networks.

NetworkShield Firewall supports any number of IP addresses on one network interface. You can just split your network into logical subnets (for example, single out a perimeter network (DMZ)) and create the necessary security policies.

To ensure higher security, network relationships are established between networks in addition to Firewall rules. To connect your local area network to the Internet via one IP address and to prevent access to the protected network, you should set the NAT (Network Address Translation) interaction type. To provide access between local area networks and in other cases, the "Route" interaction type is set.

Servers publishing (Mapping)

The Server Publishing mechanism makes it possible to access servers in the private or perimeter (DMZ) network of the company, such as web servers, mail servers, data servers, and to ensure safe protection against external attacks at the same time. NetworkShield Firewall runs as a published server and thus provides an additional protection level. Firewall Redirect Rules are used to publish servers.

NetworkShield Firewall also allows you to redirect connections to other IP addresses or to other TCP/UDP ports. This technology is also known as Mapping.

Traffic usage policy

Real time monitoring

NetworkShield Firewall allows you to monitor the activity of your network in real time. You can view the statistics of traffic usage rules and also current sessions and connections. Monitoring connections allows you to control all requests sent to the NetworkShield Firewall server or going through it. It is necessary to monitor connections when you configure and debug firewall policy rules. You should monitor sessions in order to monitor all clients that established connections with the server or with resources in other networks. The section where you monitor the statistics of traffic usage rules allows you to monitor the statistics of all rules. Each client in your network can view the statistics of the traffic usage rules set for it in any web browser. The statistics of only those rules that have a special permission set for them will be available for the client. Also, you can remotely view the statistics of all rules, but you will have to enter your NetworkShield Firewall administrator password on a special web page.

Events and Logs

To allow you to completely control the work of NetworkShield Firewall, it has its own event system that logs system events and security events. It is recommended to look through NetworkShield Firewall events regularly to fix errors and prevent failures. All events and firewall information about is saved to text files in the standard w3c format. You can analyze these files in third-party software and get detailed statistics.

Recovery System

NetworkShield Firewall allows you to back up the system configuration. The configuration is saved to a separate XML file that can be recovered in case of failures or damages. To ensure higher fault tolerance for the system, NetworkShield Firewall allows you to automatically back up the configuration according to schedule. In case the system fails, you can get the system running again within a short period of time.

Management

NetworkShield Firewall comes together with a specially deigned control panel that makes the configuration process easier and allows you to avoid mistakes in configuration. For initial configuration, it is enough to specify the parameters of your network in the special Network Configuration Wizard. After the wizard finishes its work, your network will be protected against external attacks and also all LAN clients will have access to the specified services in the public network.

Rules and objects are created with the help of simple and clear wizards that will not allow you to make mistakes during the configuration process.

The set of predefined firewall rules ensures that the server will be running in case you make mistakes while creating security policies.

NetworkShield Firewall supports remote control from any computer on your local area network.

Active Directory support

NetworkShield Firewall can authenticate users not only by internal NetworkShield Firewall accounts, but also by Active Directory accounts. With NetworkShield Security Client installed on workstations, users can be automatically authenticated by their Windows login (NTLM) or NetworkShield login. Any Windows login (domain\username, computer\username, username) can be used to authenticate NetworkShield users.

Compatibility

NetworkShield Firewall is completely compatible with all components in the Windows 2000/XP/2003 operating systems and also with server products from Microsoft, such as Exchange Server, MS SQL Server, Share Point Portal Server and others.

When NetworkShield Firewall is running together with Microsoft products, it does not impose any limitations on their normal operation.

There may be conflicts with some firewalls and traffic control software. To prevent failures in your system, NetworkShield Firewall can detect such products.