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XG Firewall help
XG Firewall help
User assistance
  • Administrator help
  • User portal help
  • Command line help
  • Startup help
  • High availablity startup guide
  • XG Firewall virtual and software appliances help
  • Support
  • Open Source Software Attributions
  • Copyright notice
  • Administrator help
    • Getting started

      Follow these recommendations if you are new to XG Firewall. You learn how to secure the access to your XG Firewall, test and validate it, and finally how to go live once you feel comfortable.

    • Control center

      The control center provides a single-screen snapshot of the status and health of the security system.

    • Current activities

      Keep track of currently signed-in local and remote users, current IPv4, IPv6, IPsec, SSL, and wireless connections.

    • Reports

      Reports provide a unified view of network activity for the purpose of analyzing traffic and threats and complying with regulatory bodies. For example, you can view a report that includes all web server protection activities taken by the firewall, such as blocked web server requests and identified viruses.

    • Diagnostics

      This menu allows checking the health of your device in a single shot. Information can be used for troubleshooting and diagnosing problems found in your device.

    • System graphs

      System graphs page displays graphs pertaining to system related activities for different time intervals.

    • URL category lookup

    • Packet capture

    • Connection list

    • Rules and policies

      Rules and polices enable traffic flow between zones and networks while enforcing security controls, address translation, and decryption and scanning.

    • Intrusion prevention

      With intrusion prevention, you can examine network traffic for anomalies to prevent DoS and other spoofing attacks. Using policies, you can define rules that specify an action to take when traffic matches signature criteria. You can specify protection on a zone-specific basis and limit traffic to trusted MAC addresses or IP–MAC pairs. You can also create rules to bypass DoS inspection.

    • Web

      Web protection keeps your company safe from attacks that result from web browsing and helps you increase productivity. You can define browsing restrictions with categories, URL groups, and file types. By adding these restrictions to policies, you can block websites or display a warning message to users. For example, you can block access to social networking sites and executable files. General settings let you specify scanning engines and other types of protection. Exceptions let you override protection as required for your business needs.

    • Applications

      Application protection helps keeps your company safe from attacks and malware that result from application traffic exploits. You can also apply bandwidth restrictions and restrict traffic from applications that lower productivity. Application filters allow you to control traffic by category or on an individual basis. With synchronized application control, you can restrict traffic on endpoints that are managed with Sophos Central. Managing cloud application traffic is also supported.

    • Wireless

      Wireless protection lets you define wireless networks and control access to them.

    • Email

      Manage email routing and protect domains and mail servers. You can configure SMTP/S, POP/S, and IMAP/S policies with spam and malware checks, data protection, and email encryption.

    • Web server

      You can protect web servers against Layer 7 (application) vulnerability exploits. These attacks include cookie, URL, and form manipulation. Use these settings to define web servers, protection policies, and authentication policies for use in Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules. General settings allow you to protect web servers against slow HTTP attacks.

    • Advanced threat

      Advanced threat protection allows you to monitor and analyze all traffic on your network for threats and take appropriate action, for example drop the packets. You can also view Sandstorm activity and the results of any file analysis. Use these results to determine the level of risk posed to your network by releasing these files.

    • Central synchronization

      By synchronizing with Sophos Central, you can use Security Heartbeat to enable devices on your network to share health information. Synchronized Application Control lets you detect and manage applications in your network. Additionally, you can manage your XG Firewall devices centrally through Sophos Central.

    • VPN
      • VPN overview

        Virtual Private Networks (VPN) carry private network traffic over a public network, such as the internet, through secure connections.

        • IPsec VPN

          You can configure policy-based and route-based IPsec VPNs. You can also configure remote access VPNs.

        • SSL VPN

          You can create site-to-site and remote access SSL VPNs.

        • RED tunnels

          A Remote Ethernet Device (RED) provides a secure tunnel between a remote site and XG Firewall.

      • How to create VPN tunnels

      • VPN settings

        Define settings requested for remote access using SSL VPN and L2TP. These include protocols, server certificates, and IP addresses for clients.

      • IPsec connections

        Create and manage IPsec VPN connections and failover groups.

      • Remote access VPN

        You can configure remote access IPsec and SSL VPN connections using the Sophos Connect client.

      • SSL VPN (site-to-site)

        With a site-to-site SSL VPN, you can provide access between internal networks over the internet using point-to-point encrypted tunnels.

      • L2TP (remote access)

        The Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) enables you to provide connections to your network through private tunnels over the internet. The firewall supports L2TP as defined in RFC 3931.

      • PPTP (remote access)

        Using the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), you can provide connections to your network through private tunnels over the internet. The protocol itself does not describe encryption or authentication features. However, the firewall supports several authentication options including Password Authentication Protocol (PAP), Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP), and Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (MS-CHAPv2). The firewall supports PPTP as described in RFC 2637.

      • Clientless access

        Allow users to access services and areas on your network such as remote desktops and file shares using only a browser, and without the need for additional plug-ins. Clientless access policies specify users (policy members) and bookmarks.

      • Bookmarks

        Bookmarks specify a URL, a connection type, and security settings. Use bookmarks with clientless access policies to give users access to your internal networks or services. For example, you may want to provide access to file shares or allow remote desktop access. Users can access bookmarks through the VPN page in the user portal.

      • Bookmark groups

        Bookmark groups allow you to combine bookmarks for easy reference. For example, you can create a group containing all of the bookmarks for remote desktops so that you do not need to specify access on an individual basis.

      • IPsec policies

        Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) policies specify a set of encryption and authentication settings for an Internet Key Exchange (IKE).

    • Network

      Network objects let you enhance security and optimize performance for devices behind the firewall. You can use these settings to configure physical ports, create virtual networks, and support Remote Ethernet Devices. Zones allow you to group interfaces and apply firewall rules to all member devices. Network redundancy and availability is provided by failover and load balancing. Other settings allow you to provide secure wireless broadband service to mobile devices and to configure advanced support for IPv6 device provisioning and traffic tunnelling.

    • Routing

      A route provides a device information so that it can forward a packet to a specific destination. You can configure static and dynamic routes on XG Firewall.

    • Authentication

      You can set up authentication using an internal user database or third-party authentication service. To authenticate themselves, users must have access to an authentication client. However, they can bypass the client if you add them as clientless users. The firewall also supports two-factor authentication, transparent authentication, and guest user access through a captive portal.

    • System services

      Use system services to configure the RED provisioning service, high availability, and global malware protection settings.

    • Profiles

      Profiles allow you to control users’ internet access and administrators’ access to the firewall. You can define schedules, access time, and quotas for surfing and data transfer. Network address translation allows you to specify public IP addresses for internet access. You can specify levels of access to the firewall for administrators based on work roles.

    • Hosts and services

      You can define and manage system hosts and services.

    • Administration

      Administration allows you to manage device licenses and time, administrator access, centralized updates, network bandwidth and device monitoring, and user notifications.

    • Backup and firmware

      You can manage the configuration, firmware versions, hotfixes, and pattern updates.

    • Certificates

      Certificates allows you to add certificates, certificate authorities, and certificate revocation lists.

    • Logs

      Logs provide insight into network activity and system events that let you identify security issues and see which of the configured rules apply. You can send logs to a syslog server or view them through the log viewer. Using data anonymization, you can encrypt identities in logs and reports.

    • Open Source Software Attributions
  • User portal help
  • Command line help
  • Startup help
  • High availablity startup guide
  • XG Firewall virtual and software appliances help
  • Support

    You can get help in various ways.

  • Open Source Software Attributions
  • Copyright notice
  1. Home
  2. Administrator help
  3. VPN
  4. VPN overview

    Virtual Private Networks (VPN) carry private network traffic over a public network, such as the internet, through secure connections.

  5. RED tunnels

    A Remote Ethernet Device (RED) provides a secure tunnel between a remote site and XG Firewall.

RED tunnels

A Remote Ethernet Device (RED) provides a secure tunnel between a remote site and XG Firewall.

You can configure and install RED appliances. Alternatively, you can create a site-to-site RED tunnel between two XG Firewall devices in a client-server configuration.
  • About RED hardware models and Firewall REDs
  • Add a RED tunnel
  • Create a site-to-site RED tunnel: An example
  • Deploy a RED manually: An example

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