LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Internet Connection: Internet Connection Firewall
built 226 days ago
On Windows XP with SP1, Internet Connection Sharing, Internet Connection Firewall, and Network Bridge are not enabled by default, and Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) is available only on computers that have two or more network connections. An administrator or user with administrative credentials can enable ICS by clicking the Advanced tab on the Properties page for a network connection (in Control Panel\Network Connections). Also, when running the New Connection Wizard, administrators can choose to enable ICS. ICS lets administrators configure a computer as an Internet gateway for a small network, and it provides network services such as name resolution through Domain Name System (DNS). It ... provides addressing through Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to the local private network.
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Organizations with networks that include a connection to the Internet have hubs and routers to enable all the users to share the connection. For security, they'll ... have at least one computer dedicated to being a proxy server or firewall of some kind. This is not a trivial matter to set up. Before Windows XP, you had to do something very similar at home to share a connection and make it secure while doing so. Most people didn't bother because their dial-up connections were made intermittently and they didn't feel that they were online long enough at any one time to be at risk.
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Many people view the Internet as a "one-way street", overlooking the fact that while their computer is connected to the Internet, the Internet is ... connected to their computer. That means that anybody with Net access can potentially access resources on their computers. Firewalls can be placed between the user and the Internet to verify all traffic before allowing it to pass through. NAT automatically provides a degree of firewall-style protection because it only allows connections that originate on the inside network. For example, an internal client can connect to an outside FTP server, but an outside client will not be able to connect to an internal FTP server because it would have to originate the connection.
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Firestarter has the ability to share the firewall host's Internet connection among all the computers on your local network. This is done through a technique called Network Address Translation, or NAT. To the outside world the cluster of machines will look like a single machine with a single IP address.
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SUNNYVALE, Calif., October 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SonicWALL, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNWL) today introduced the SonicWALL TZ 190, a network security appliance which allows users to instantly create a secure 3G wireless broadband network without the need for a fixed Internet connection. The TZ 190 series satisfies business requirements for instantly deployed primary and failover broadband networking by providing the only 3G platform currently available that integrates a deep packet inspection firewall, high speed 3G Internet WAN connectivity and centralized remote management capabilities.
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Previously not having protection in the form of a firewall on a PC connected to the Internet was not an issue because the primary connection used a modem and dialed the connection only when needed. The connectivity duration was short and the assigned IP address was dynamic, making it difficult for hackers and other outside threats to connect to a PC.
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Internet Connection Firewall