On 13 Jul 00, at 12:56, Russell Smith wrote:

>   I don't think it particularly matters which machine is designated as
> the "firewall" machine on Robert Turnbull's proposed home network.

  In general, the term "firewall" refers to a gateway (router, proxy,
or other) that imposes some security policy on the traffic it allows
to travel from one network to the other.  (Usually, the term means
that the box's default state is to *block* traffic, except for what
it is explicitly configured to allow.)
  The use of the term to refer to defensive software on a client
machine is actually quite recent.

  So when Robert uses it, I believe he means to refer to the gateway
machine, the only one that is in a position to pass or block traffic
to/from the others.

David G

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