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About the OfficeScan Firewall

The OfficeScan firewall protects clients and servers on the network using stateful inspection and high performance network virus scanning. Through the central management console, you can create rules to filter connections by application, IP address, port number, or protocol, and then apply the rules to different groups of users.

The OfficeScan firewall includes the following key features and benefits:

Traffic Filtering

The OfficeScan firewall filters all incoming and outgoing traffic, providing the ability to block certain types of traffic based on the following criteria:

Application Filtering

The OfficeScan firewall filters incoming and outgoing traffic for specific applications, allowing these applications to access the network. However, network connections will depend on the policies set by the administrator.

Certified Safe Software List

The Certified Safe Software List provides a list of applications that can bypass firewall policy security levels. If the security level is set to Medium or High, OfficeScan will still allow applications to run and access the network.

Enable querying of the global Certified Safe Software List that provides a more complete list. This is a list dynamically updated by Trend Micro.

Scanning for Network Viruses

The OfficeScan firewall also examines each packet for network viruses. For details, see Network Virus.

Customizable Profiles and Policies

The OfficeScan firewall gives you the ability to configure policies to block or allow specified types of network traffic. Assign a policy to one or more profiles, which you can then deploy to specified OfficeScan clients. This provides a highly customized method of organizing and configuring firewall settings for clients.

Stateful Inspection

The OfficeScan firewall is a stateful inspection firewall; it monitors all connections to the client and remembers all connection states. It can identify specific conditions in any connection, predict what actions should follow, and detect disruptions in a normal connection. Therefore, effective use of the firewall not only involves creating profiles and policies, but also analyzing connections and filtering packets that pass through the firewall.

Intrusion Detection System

The OfficeScan firewall also includes an Intrusion Detection System (IDS). When enabled, IDS can help identify patterns in network packets that may indicate an attack on the client. The OfficeScan firewall can help prevent the following well-known intrusions:

Firewall Violation Outbreak Monitor

The OfficeScan firewall sends a customized notification message to specified recipients when firewall violations exceed certain thresholds, which may signal an attack.

Client Firewall Privileges

Grant client users the privilege to view their firewall settings on the OfficeScan client console. Also grant users the privilege to enable or disable the firewall, the Intrusion Detection System, and the firewall violation notification message.

See also: