Managed Firewall Services

FastServers.Net recommends using a firewall to protect your server from the vulnerabilities that consistently attack even the most secure network and data centers. All of our firewall solutions are powered by Cisco System's most advanced and highly technological products available on the market today. We are constantly keeping up with the latest in security measures to keep our servers and infrastructure from being attacked by hackers, worms, trojans, and unauthorized scripts. Your server's security is our top priority.


There is no such thing as being "Too Secure!"

Prevent unauthorized access. A managed firewall can block unauthorized login attempts on your server. This can be a very effective safeguard against hackers and intrusion attempts. A managed firewall acts as a choke-point between your server and the internet, assuring that all traffic passes through one regulated area.

Screen outbound traffic. A managed firewall can regulate the information that flows from your server to the internet. This means that if a hacker gains access to your server (through a Trojan horse program, for example) it can help ensure that your server doesn't send out information without your knowledge.

Restrict services. A managed firewall can be set to block services that are known to be problems. It can regulate which applications are entitled to send or to receive information from external sources. Using these controls, users can limit their security risk by granting permissions only to essential services.

Log activity. A managed firewall can generate log reports showing every attempt to access your server. This log information can provide vital information about vulnerabilities and threats.

Hide multiple servers. Through Network Address Translation (NAT), a simple router can assign the IP addresses of servers on our network, making it appear as if there is only one server (or IP address).

Protect your privacy. Some commercial managed firewall packages offer additional security and privacy options that protect against malicious code in Web pages, submission of cookies, and secure information encryption.

A managed firewall also won't protect against:

OS Vulnerabilities: Keeping up to date is important. Software and OS update releases are usually done to fix new exploits and security problems.

Viruses. Most firewalls are not configured with up-to-date virus definitions, so a firewall alone usually won't protect you from virus threats. For this reason your server should have Virus Protection installed too.

User error. It's common for hackers to trick server users into compromising their server security. Some send phony e-mails to users, posing as ISP administrators to try to solicit passwords. In these cases when permission is granted to strangers, a firewall may not be able to prevent any resulting damage.

Software bugs. While a good firewall can regulate access to specific applications on your server, it's not a catch-all solution for software that isn't up-to-date. Most product documentation offers a method to get updates and patches, and most vendor Web sites contain current updates. Product registration often entitles you to receive notification whenever the software is updated.

Every hacking attempt. A good firewall offers protection against the majority of intrusion attempts, but no security system is 100% impenetrable. This doesn't mean defense is futile — a relatively simple set-up provides you with a level of security that should help deter hackers.

FastServers.Net Managed Firewall Service Recommendations

By default FastServers.Net will configure your managed firewall service in conjunction with any particular control panel software you have selected. In the event you do not have a control panel and you have a special purpose for your server you *MUST* inform the Sales Team of the rules/ports you would like implemented at the time of ordering your server. If no unique rules/ports are specified we will consider the overall selected application environment as a roadmap for initial managed firewall services.

DNS Services
When you have selected a control panel for your server there are some items you must be aware of for the overall configuration. CPanel, Plesk (Windows/Linux), and Ensim are all-encompassing automated solutions that handle DNS zone file generation tasks. When you are behind a managed firewall you are assigned private IP addresses and the DNS zone generation process for all of these control panels uses the private IP addresses to create the zone files, as the private (not PUBLIC) address space is what is known to the operating system. If you are not sensitive to this you will run into major problems and the workaround for this is as follows:

Modify DNS
DNS records that are written to the server will be in the form of private IP addresses. You will need to modify the DNS records manually to reflect the public IP addresses so that your domains will resolve correctly throughout the world.

External DNS
If you have another server networked beyond the managed firewall server, you may consider running DNS services on this particular server so you can control the records from the onset, as you will not need to modify zone file records from private to public IP addresses in this scenario.

FastServers DNS
If the above options are not applicable, you can speak with your sales associate about using FastServers  Managed DNS Services to handle your Nameserver hosting requirements.

Requesting Additional Address Space
IP requests behind the managed firewall are different than normal requests as the IP addresses for the FastServers.Net managed firewall services each have a unique rule bound to them. In essence each IP that is added to a server becomes an independent managed firewall. In this case there are certain changes to the IP request that need to be adhered too. Due to the complex nature and overall resource usage on the managed firewall, per address, special pricing applies directly to address space behind the managed firewall.

• IP requests are limited to 2 IP requests per submission.
• IP requests for shared managed firewall settings are $2.50 per IP, per month.
• IP requests can only be used to justify unique SSL certificate hosting. To date, requiring static addresses for individual, straight-HTTP virtual hosts is not a technically justifiable request. Can exceptions be made? Yes, but you will need a bulletproof, technically-backed argument.

The maximum number of IP addresses that can be added to a single server using the FastServers managed firewall service is 32.

Supported Operating Systems

• Windows 2003 (no control panel - just IIS)
• Windows 2003 (with Plesk control panel)
• Windows 2003 (with Helm control panel)
• CentOS (no control panel - plain/Apache-based)
• Red Hat Enterprise (no control panel - plain/Apache-based)
• CentOS or Red Hat Enterprise (with cPanel/WHM control panel)
  

If you desire to host a different panel-based system, or any type of alternate environment, behind the managed firewall please contact sales@fastservers.net

 

Cisco PIX 515E Shared Firewall Service
IP Addresses	1*
Max Throughput	188Mbps
Site-To-Site VPN	Not Available
Max Connections	130,000
Memory	128MB
Ethernet Ports	1
Max VPN Connections	Not Available
Enabled Failover	Yes
Managed	DEFCON 1 Status
Dedicated Hardware	No, Shared
Monthly Fee:	$50.00

* 1 IP Address is provided with the Shared Cisco Pix service. Additional IPs can be requested at the cost of $2.50 each per month. 
 

Cisco ASA 5505 Firewall Service
IP Addresses	Licensed for 10*
Max Throughput	150Mbps
Site-To-Site VPN	Licensed for 10
Max Connections	10,000
Memory	256MB
Ethernet Ports	8
Max VPN Connections	Licensed for 25
Enabled Failover	Manual 2 Hour Replacement
Managed	DEFCON 1 Status
Dedicated Hardware	Yes
Monthly Fee:	$100.00

* Additional License upgrades are available if more than 10 IP Addresses are needed for this model.

 

Cisco ASA 5510 Firewall Service
IP Addresses	Unlimited
Max Throughput	300Mbps
Site-To-Site VPN	Licensed for 250
Max Connections	50,000
Memory	256MB
Ethernet Ports	5
Max VPN Connections	Licensed for 250
Enabled Failover	Manual 2 Hour Replacement
Managed	DEFCON 1 Status
Dedicated Hardware	Yes
Monthly Fee:	$300.00

FastServers.Net offers a full range of Cisco ASA Firewall products.   If you have a special need for enterprise level firewall solutions please email sales@fastservers.net