The Network · Workshop 08 · Mastery
Who's Allowed Through
Five steps. About 25 minutes. Up to 7 stars. The constellation you're building is called First Gate.
The Network · Workshop 08 · Mastery
Five steps. About 25 minutes. Up to 7 stars. The constellation you're building is called First Gate.
A firewall is the bouncer of the network. Its job is to let approved packets in, send unapproved packets away, and log the suspicious ones for review.
Every device with internet access faces a constant stream of unwanted packets — bots scanning for weaknesses, broken connections, occasionally something hostile. A firewall reads each packet's headers and decides: allow, block, or drop.
Most firewalls work by port. Port 80 (HTTP) is usually allowed because it's how websites work. Port 22 (SSH) might be blocked at home because nothing should be remote-logging into your laptop. Each rule is a deliberate trade-off between safety and usefulness.
By the end of this workshop you'll have designed your own firewall rule set for a small network.
That's the warm-up. When you've actually read it — not skimmed — tap below.
Pick all that fit.
Click an action, then when it happens.
Pretend you're setting up a small home network. Write 4 firewall rules — what's allowed, what's blocked, and why.
Stuck? Try: Rule 1 ALLOW outbound web (port 80, 443) for everyone. Rule 2 BLOCK all inbound except replies to my own requests. Rule 3 ALLOW the smart TV to reach Netflix. Rule 4 BLOCK the smart TV from reaching anything else.
One sentence.