Application Layer Gateways

Sat Sep 23 16:45:27 UTC 2017

On 09/23/2017 07:47 AM, Ca By wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 23, 2017 at 7:13 AM Colton Conor <colton.conor at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Just not sure why big vendors like Alcatel and Comtrend would have them
>> enabled by default if they do more harm than good?
> Turns out vendors focus on building and selling gear but are not
> experienced in running networks

I don't have any quarrel with your statement about experience with
running networks, but I would surmise the real reason is that same one
that caused Microsoft to turn on so much Bad Stuff(tm) in Windows by
default:  reduction in tech support calls.

How many times have you read a manual cover-to-cover for a new piece of
equipment before doing ANYTHING with it?  Especially when the manual is
on CD-ROM, and the PDFs take up about 500 MB of the 700 MB of available
space.

I have yet to find a piece of network gear that has a "cheat sheet" that
bullet-lists all the options (and perhaps a 25-word description) and
where in the manual to find how to turn it on/off.

Even better would be a collection of canned configuration files, from
"absolute minimum" (EVERYTHING turned off) to "all the bells and
whistles enabled".  Note that this corresponds to the concept of "mostly
closed" firewalls and "mostly open" firewalls.

I've seen model configuration files in Unix/Linux where all the defaults
(which constitutes an absolute minimum of turned-on options) are shown
in comments, so that you can just go through the config and turn on
exactly what you need.