RFC 2979

I doubt this will matter to the most vehement, but I emailed the author of RFC 2979 and asked if a basic NAT Router (with filtering, SPI, or such) qualifies as a firewall. (The RFC notes that NAT and firewalls are not the same thing.) He stated that, in his opinion, the presence of filtering makes it a firewall.

Again, the issue is one of quality. There are low-end firewalls than can do very little, and there are high-end firewalls that can do virtually everything. But all such devices are used in the process of firewalling, by definition.

Oh well. It goes without saying that the vendors of home firewalls are in no legal jeopardy for calling them firewalls.

RFC 2979- Behavior of and Requirements for Internet Firewalls

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Reply to
CyberDroog
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No one gives a rat's ass but you little Cyberdrool you whining little

*clown* now *Shut the Hell Up about it.
Reply to
Duane Arnold

So, post his exact response. It still won't change that fact that no government agency, no medical group, not business that cares about their data, not residential user that can value/afford a firewall would choose a simple NAT ROUTER which doesn't block by default. Routing is not firewalling.

Reply to
Leythos

The response was pretty simple: "My position is that the presence of filtering makes it a firewall."

That is the point. Routing doesn't make a firewall, per se (although the side effect offers more security than nothing at all), but filtering does. Most all simple NAT router/firewalls offer some filtering capabilities. Hence the use of the word firewall in the product description.

Of course a business won't use devices designed for home users. The NASA blockhouse is also much more of a "firewall" than a residential apartment building would offer.

No, routing is not firewalling. That is why the devices are called "Firewall Routers", "Router with Firewall", etc.

Reply to
CyberDroog

This all depends on definition BTW:

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I introduced the definition of the IETF here, because we were talking about Internet security.

Yours, VB.

Reply to
Volker Birk

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