Rules Flowchart

[Guest]

[Bucic]

Somebody mentioned a flowchart? Is this one ok? I've made it in OpenOffice.org Draw in 10 minutes for my personal use. I'm new to COMODO and Firewalls in general.

[panic]

One small point that might make you rethink your diagram (great idea to do it as a flowchart BTW);

Your flowcharts contains the terms "Incoming - to and from your PC - requested" and "Outgoing - from and to your PC - requested".

The terms "incoming" and outgoing", in a firewall context, refer to the originiating point in any data exchange, relative to your PC.

When your PC requests, for example, a web site, your PC is starting the "conversation" with the web server that contains the web page. Since your PC is the originating point of the conversation, this is normally considered an outbound connection, as the first bit was outbound from your PC. The replies that come back from the web server are assumed, as they are seen as a valid response to your valid outbound request.

If, on the other hand, someone out there on the internet tries to contact your PC (pinging or port scanning your IP address, for example) without your PC requesting the contact, since they are the originating point in the conversation, this is usually termed an inbound request. Because your PC didn't ask for the contact, this can also be called an inbound unsolicited request.

As a rule,  inbound unsolicited requests are BAD!! Very bad! There, therefore, needs to be a rule in your firewall that blocks these.

Cheers,
Ewen :-)

[Bucic]

One small point that might make you rethink your diagram (great idea to do it as a flowchart BTW);

Your flowcharts contains the terms "Incoming - to and from your PC - requested" and "Outgoing - from and to your PC - requested".

It says Outgoing is unrequested Hey! It should be opposite! :/

The terms "incoming" and outgoing", in a firewall context, refer to the originiating point in any data exchange, relative to your PC.

When your PC requests, for example, a web site, your PC is starting the "conversation" with the web server that contains the web page. Since your PC is the originating point of the conversation, this is normally considered an outbound connection, as the first bit was outbound from your PC. The replies that come back from the web server are assumed, as they are seen as a valid response to your valid outbound request.

If, on the other hand, someone out there on the internet tries to contact your PC (pinging or port scanning your IP address, for example) without your PC requesting the contact, since they are the originating point in the conversation, this is usually termed an inbound request. Because your PC didn't ask for the contact, this can also be called an inbound unsolicited request.

As a rule,  inbound unsolicited requests are BAD!! Very bad! There, therefore, needs to be a rule in your firewall that blocks these.

Cheers,
Ewen :-)

I was trying to reflect this:

One of the most important observations on the definitions above (other than the heirarchy of the Rules set by the Rule ID) is that both InBound Rules and OutBound Rules both control information comming into our PC.  InBound Rules deal with incoming information/communication we didn't ask to happen (but may want to happen), while OutBound Rules deal with incoming information/communication we asked to happen.

I think highlited part confused me PLUS I got it wrong aside of being confused

So... How about the next version of my flowchart?

[panic]

Nice job! Well done and very easy to follow.

Ewen :-)

[Bucic]

Thank you! 
Soooo... If it's correct why don't someone use it for this "manual for users by users" I've heard of. I can provide it in OpenOffice.org DRAW (.odg) format.

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