User guide

17
Security
Security
Remote Access Control
You can determine whether or not an administrator or other authorized person has access
to configuring your Gateway. This access (either time-restricted or unlimited until the router
is rebooted) can be turned on or off in the Web interface. Additionally, permanent remote
access can be configured in the CLI.
Password Protection
Access to your Netopia device can be controlled through two access control accounts,
Admin or User.
• The Admin, or administrative user, performs all configuration, management or mainte-
nance operations on the Gateway.
• The User account provides monitor capability only.
A user may NOT change the configuration, perform upgrades or invoke maintenance
functions.
Network Address Translation (NAT)
The Netopia Gateway Network Address Translation (NAT) security feature lets you conceal
the topology of a hard-wired Ethernet or wireless network connected to its LAN inter face
from Gateways on networks connected to its WAN interface. In other words, the end com-
puter stations on your LAN are invisible from the Internet.
Only a single WAN IP address is required to provide this security support for your entire
LAN.
LAN sites that communicate through an Internet Service Provider typically enable NAT,
since they usually purchase only one IP address from the ISP.
• When NAT is ON, the Netopia Gateway “proxies” for the end computer stations on your
network by pretending to be the originating host for network communications from non-
originating networks. The WAN interface address is the only IP address exposed.
The Netopia Gateway tracks which local hosts are communicating with which remote
hosts. It routes packets received from remote networks to the correct computer on the
LAN (Ethernet) inter face.