Innovations - FireBridge

Innovations

FireBridge

Innovations overview

FireBridge

Email system

FIREBRIDGE suits any computer network, from the home PC user to large corporate enterprise. Because of its unique design, installation is much simpler than with any other firewall product on the market. It also includes one of the easiest to use interfaces ever seen, including setup wizards and a whole range of options designed to put Network security installation and management in the hands of the average user.

Who will benefit from FIREBRIDGE?

Companies wanting to protect their valuable information from potential intruders or attackers
Companies wanting to upgrade their current security program or ‘adding-on’ to their existing lines of defense.

Home users who have no real Networking knowledge and want to secure their home Cable, ISDN, ADSL, DSL connections

FIREBRIDGE will change the way everyone looks at system protection. The sophistication of the “plug and Play” technology, together with absolute ease of use and installation and the proposed cost (less than the cost of a PC) will enable large, medium and small businesses as well as home PC users to afford ‘State of The Art’ protection!

Unlike a router system, FIREBRIDGE forwards packets like it’s namesake, a bridge. That is, it acts as a learning bridge between two devices. These two devices are usually routers, which are much more capable of performing the complicated routing tasks required in modern networks. By decoupling routing and filtering into separate boxes, each can focus on one task and do a better job of it. FIREBRIDGE still bases its ‘pass/no pass’ decisions for each packet based on the Layer 3 information within the packet.

By decoupling routing from filtering, FIREBRIDGE becomes a pure filter, unburdened by a routing table or interface configuration. The result is increased flexibility, as the two network devices need not be reconfigured.

FIREBRIDGE can be put between any two devices, anywhere, at anytime, even between large groups of devices (point to point, one to many, and many to many). Being able to place the system between any two network devices changes the way the industry perceives security firewalls. They are no longer routers with special filtering abilities. They are transparent screening devices.

FIREBRIDGE can be implemented without assigning a public IP address to it. Configuration is performed via an easy-to-use secure html interface accessible from any machine with a web browser, but results in a security device without an address. The system therefore, will never appear in a trace route, as it is not a logical part of the network.

Until now, the installation of a security system has required intensive labour and technical expertise. Routed Firewall installers must have an understanding of routing and IP addressing as well as an understanding of their network topology. They must know what will be affected by a change in the network and what won’t. It will also take them a lot longer to implement. DNS servers may need updating, gateways will need to be changed on any machine that talks directly to the Firewall, troubleshooting is much more difficult and bailing out is almost impossible.

Redundancy is a major issue. If a routed Firewall fails due to any reason, replacing it is extremely difficult - either you have a spare one or you purchase a new firewall entirely. You can not simply bypass the Firewall while it is down without doing as much reconfiguration as you did to set it up. Then once you have the new Firewall you will need to reconfigure it.

With the FIREBRIDGE, none of this is a problem. It is a pre-boxed solution boasting an easy to use interface— anyone can implement it. The installation is a matter of two quick cable changes that takes seconds. You simply disconnect the cables and put it in the middle. No interfaces need to be reconfigured and no routing tables have to be adjusted. If it fails, you simply disconnect it and put the cables back where they were. Downtime will be a couple of seconds while the cables are unplugged and then plugged in. The network will continue to operate as it did with the FIREBRIDGE functioning.

FIREBRIDGE is configured from an HTML Interface and uses three network cards. The first card is a management interface offering a dummy internal IP address. The second network card forwards packets to a packet filter, and packets that pass the filter are forwarded to a third network card. None of the cards carry a true IP address.

The FIREBRIDGE interface is object oriented written which will allow for easy changes to either look and feel or functionality with minimal effort.

The FIREBRIDGE interface does checking on valid network address inputs, preventing users from making mistakes and getting unexpected results. Upon entering invalid information the FIREBRIDGE will provide the closest valid entry as a suggestion.

The FIREBRIDGE is easy to adapt to other network interfaces including wireless and as a bridge between different topologies

FIREBRIDGE is trademarked and the system has international patent protection. Firebridge Systems Pty Ltd also has a patent pending on a second version of the FIREBRIDGE. This version (still under development) enhances the Firewalling capabilities and adds a whole range of new features not available in the current version.

Firebridge Systems Pty Ltd

PO Box 838, Artarmon

NSW 1570, Australia

telephone: 61 2 9438 5418

facsimile: 61 2 9438 5947

info@firebridge.com