Firewall Settings for Actiontec Gateway DSL don't make sense

I have an Actiontec GT704WG DSL Gateway, which I got from Verizon, and am unable to make any sense of the way the firewall settings are described and implemented. I'm running a single (no network) Windows XP Pro machine.

Here are the main elements of the Actiontec firewall interface:

There are four possible levels of security, each with a corresponding radio button: Off, Low, Medium and High. The default setting is "Off".

There is a note that says:

"Note: If a check appears in a box, that service is open (or allowed). An empty box signifies the service is closed (or blocked). Any Services not listed below are not allowed."

Underneath this note, the services over which you are offered some control -- there are about eleven of them, including well-known ones like HTTP, DNS, FTP, POP3, among others -- are listed. There are two columns of check boxes to the right of the service name column -- one column is labeled "In", the other is labeled "Out". Note that the "In" column controls access to a listed service by a user *outside* of the network, so that's a security risk that I would want to block.

OK. No problem with all this.....yet.

Now, since I want the highest level of security, I choose the "High" setting. When I do this, the check boxes in both the "In" and the "Out" columns for the services that are listed are all *checked* and *grayed out*. So, according to the interface's note (quoted above), this means that all of these services are *allowed* and I *cannot* change them because they're grayed out.

Now, I'm starting to have a problem. How is a setting that *allows* users *outside* of my home "network" (again, just one PC behind the Actiontec router) to have access to services like HTTP and FTP a "high" level of security??! And because it's grayed out, you can't change it.

Then, I decide to select the "Medium" security level and see what happens. The same eleven services are listed, and they're all *checked*, but they're *not* grayed out. So, with this "Medium" setting, I can clear a check box and *block* a service, which is good. But how does the ability of the "Medium" security level to *block* a service that you could *not* block when you chose the "High" level correspond to a *lower* level of security (relative to the "High" level)? In other words, "Medium" allows me to increase security relating to the listed services -- i.e., to block them -- in a way that "High" does *not* allow me to do. What kind of sense does that make?

Thanks to anyone for any help or suggestions!

George

permalink · 2006-03-06 12:21:45 · Print ·

Firewall Settings for Actiontec Gateway DSL don't make sense

Re: Firewall Settings for Actiontec Gateway DSL don't make sense

Re: Firewall Settings for Actiontec DSL Gateway don't make sense


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