Free Software Solutions For Educational Institutions https://selfhosted.education
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  2. layout: default
  3. parent: Network Solutions
  4. nav_order: 1
  5. title: Firewalls
  6. ---
  7. # Firewalls, Bandwidth Management and Link Aggregation and Failover
  8. <div style="text-align: center; width: 100%;">
  9. <img src="/assets/firewalls.png">
  10. </div>
  11. ## Overview
  12. A firewall is a hardware + software solution that connects and shares
  13. Internet bandwidth with your local network. It isolates and protects
  14. the local network from the Internet and also allows you to securely
  15. expose specific applications, services and servers on the local
  16. network.
  17. A bandwidth management solution helps you monitor your bandwidth usage
  18. and then allows you to define bandwidth and Internet usage priorities
  19. and policies.
  20. A link aggregation and failover solution lets you connect multiple
  21. Internet links to your firewall so that you can have more bandwidth
  22. available to users on the local network. This also means that you
  23. don’t rely on a single Internet link or ISP for your Internet
  24. connectivity needs.
  25. ## Common Problems
  26. * You have a firewall but you need to repeatedly call a service provider or
  27. vendor to manage the rules for you.
  28. * You have a lot of Internet bandwidth but your Internet usage and experience
  29. is slow.
  30. * When large or bulk files are repeatedly downloaded, it causes a slowdown for
  31. other users.
  32. * It is impossible to account for your bandwidth utilisation.
  33. * When your main Internet link goes down, or is slow, it cuts off the entire
  34. network from the Internet
  35. * You are having to depend on third-party ISPs to provide high- speed and
  36. unrestricted access to the Internet
  37. * Even when you have multiple links to the Internet, you might not be able to
  38. use them all at the same time. Or specify policies on who can use which one
  39. at what time.
  40. ## Benefits
  41. * No dependency on 3rd party for firewall management.
  42. * No risk of usage data being sent to a firewall vendor's cloud setup for
  43. analysis – thereby, ensuring better privacy for users
  44. * Optimal utilisation of all the available Internet links simultaneously and
  45. automatic failover
  46. * Fair sharing of bandwidth amongst users so that prioritised traffic and users
  47. always get the required bandwidth
  48. * Actionable Internet utilisation reports
  49. * Caching of frequently accessed content from the Internet saves bandwidth and
  50. improves user experience
  51. * Extended caching of bulk content like OS updates, Anti-Virus updates etc
  52. * Granular Web Access controls depending on user, time of day, day of week,
  53. content-type, request-type etc
  54. * Logs can be retained for as long as required for data and trend analysis
  55. * User identity and authentication is mapped from a singular, campus-wide
  56. service that is used for all other applications as well