"A firewall is a security mechanism that allows limited access to your site from the Internet. It allows only approved traffic in and out according to a thought-out plan. In addition firewalls like that of Cyberoam UTM can also do Stateful Inspection of traffic. The firewall maintains records of all connections passing through it and is able to determine whether a packet is the start of a new connection, or part of an existing one. Based on the state of a connection and the source and destination of traffic the firewall can either Allow OR Drop the traffic. Cyberoam firewall allows identification of the applications and also creates schedule which is used to control, when a firewall rule or an Internet Access policy is active or inactive. Firewall rules can be defined for a specific scheduled period.

What does a firewall do?

Basic firewall function is to allow internet connection and do Network Address Translation (NAT). In addition, basic firewalls perform varied tasks like: Blocking incoming network traffic based on source or destination - Blocking outgoing network traffic based on source or destination - Blocking network traffic based on unacceptable content - Making internal resources available (E.g. Public Web Server) - Allowing connections to internal network (E.g. VPN Connection to telecommuters & traveling salespeople) - Reporting on network traffic and firewall activities."