Setting the Ground Rules

Setting the Ground Rules

When you connect an enterprise network to the Internet, one of the first things you must think about is what you want to allow to pass to and from the Internet, and what you don't. Just like you already have an idea of who lives in your neighborhood, and maybe the cars that those neighbors drive, you need to have an idea about what type of traffic can be trusted in terms of your Internet connection. After you figure out what you want to use the Internet connection for, and what you don't want to use it for, you can take action to allow only the trusted types of traffic.

Although it might seem like a difficult task to figure out what should and shouldn't be allowed to pass back and forth from the Internet, some of the first steps are pretty easy to understand and appreciate. Figure 18-1 shows a sample network from which the basics can be explained.