A firewall can be used as a packet filter. It can forward or block packets based on the
information in the network layer and transport layer headers: source and destination
IP addresses, source and destination port addresses, and type of protocol (TCP or UDP).
A packet-filter firewall is a router that uses a filtering table to decide which packets
must be discarded (not forwarded). Figure 30.33 shows an example of a filtering table
for this kind of a firewall.
According to the figure, the following packets are filtered:
1. Incoming packets from network 131.34.0.0. are blocked (security precaution).
Note that the * (asterisk) means “any.”
2. Incoming packets destined for any internal TELNET server (port 23) are
blocked.
3. Incoming packets destined for internal host 194.78.20.8. are blocked. The organization
wants this host for internal use only.
4. Outgoing packets destined for an HTTP server (port 80) are blocked. The organization
does not want employees to browse the Internet.