2012

The Smart Firewall uses two kinds of firewall rules:
Control network access for
programs on your computer.
Program rules
Control all the incoming and the
outgoing network traffic.
General rules
About the order in which firewall rules are processed
The Smart Firewall processes General rules before it
processes Program rules. For example, consider a case
when there is a Program rule that allows Internet
Explorer to access Internet using port 80 with TCP
protocol and a General rule that blocks TCP
communication through port 80 for all applications.
In this case, the Internet Explorer application cannot
access the Internet as Norton Internet Security gives
precedence to General rules over the Program rules.
Within the list of General rules, rules are processed in
order of appearance, from top to bottom. Program
Control entries are not processed in order. The rules
within each Program Control entry, however, are
processed in order of appearance, from top to bottom.
For example, you have a Program rule for the Symantec
pcAnywhere application that blocks the use of the
application with any other computer. You add another
rule for the same application that allows its use with
a specific computer. You then move the new rule before
the original rule in the program rule list. Norton
Internet Security processes the new rule first and lets
you use Symantec pcAnywhere with that specific
computer. It then processes the original rule and
prevents its use with any other computer.
About General rules
Norton Internet Security includes a number of
predefined general firewall rules. These rules provide
195Protecting Internet activities
About the Smart Firewall