Quick Reference Guide

ProSafe VPN Firewall 200 FVX538 Reference Manual
LAN Configuration 3-7
v1.0, March 2009
Creating the Network Database
Some advantages of the Network Database are:
• Generally, you do not need to enter either IP address or MAC addresses. Instead, you can just
select the desired PC or device.
• No need to reserve an IP address for a PC in the DHCP Server. All IP address assignments
made by the DHCP Server will be maintained until the PC or device is removed from the
database, either by expiry (inactive for a long time) or by you.
• No need to use a Fixed IP on PCs. Because the address allocated by the DHCP Server will
never change, you don't need to assign a fixed IP to a PC to ensure it always has the same IP
address.
• MAC level control over PCs. The Network Database uses the MAC address to identify each
PC or device. So changing a PC’s IP address does not affect any restrictions on that PC.
• Group and individual control over PCs.
– You can assign PCs to Groups and apply restrictions to each Group using the Firewall
Rules screen (see “Using Rules to Block or Allow Specific Kinds of Traffic” on page 4-2).
– You can also select the Groups to be covered by the Block Sites feature (see “Setting
Block Sites (Content Filtering)” on page 4-29).
– If necessary, you can also create Firewall Rules to apply to a single PC (see “Enabling
Source MAC Filtering” on page 4-31). Because the MAC address is used to identify each
PC, users cannot avoid these restrictions by changing their IP address.
• A computer is identified by its MAC address—not its IP address. Hence, changing a
computer’s IP address does not affect any restrictions applied to that PC.
The LAN Groups screen contains a list of all known PCs and network devices, as well as hosts that
are assigned dynamic IP addresses by this router.