Networks and the Internet are dynamic environments that change from day to day, if not from hour to hour, as websites and web services change web hosts and IP addresses frequently. Both advanced and everyday users need practical and efficient mechanisms like LateralDNS to address these changes in a timely fashion. Boiled down, the purpose of a firewall is to restrict the flow of communications from the Internet into the private or business network. The concept is simple, but the IP-address-based implementation that most have experienced to date makes it too complicated to keep up to date. The problem with this is that it adds both an extra step and a point of failure to setting up rules, both of which are stumbling blocks to keeping firewall configurations current and effective. Updating firewall rules quickly becomes cumbersome – and nobody wants to get the heat for shutting down an important business service by transposing a digit in an IP address. The answer to this is for the human user to take what makes sense to them and use that information and the technology based on it to rule the flow of communications.

What makes sense to a human user is not the opaque and easy-to-mistype IP address, but the domain name, in contrast to IP addresses, draws on humans’ innate, inborn understanding of language. Use LateralDNS technology to restrict access by domain name and you have all the effect of a traditional firewall in a system that you will actually use, because the implementation of rules is transparent, with no extra step to identify which IP addresses you need to punch in in order to block off a specific website or web-based service. In addition, unlike IP addresses, domain names are much more stable. Whether hosted through one service or another, websites use the same domain name, but a simple change of web hosting service would invalidate all the IP-address-based firewall rules meant to block it off. On the other end, multiple users may use the same IP address to provide different web content and different web services, so blocking off one by IP address blocks off all of them unintentionally. LateralDNS technology, however, resolves both of these problems by blocking sites and services through the domain name, the public moniker through which the websites, web content and web services are known to everyone and the element that web content and service providers find more difficult to change and stay in business.

Domain names are easy to understand, easy to recognize and easy to keep straight. With LAD’s LateralDNS technology, using domain names simplifies and streamlines firewall rule creation and adjustment. LateralDNS firewall technology delivers consistent and reliable results because it operates more inline with the way the Internet works and how people use it: people rely on domain names to identify and access the information and services that they want, far more so than with IP addresses. By making it simple, LateralDNS technology addresses the ever-changing nature of network and Internet environments as those changes manifest through a simple, easy to implement mechanism that widens access to practical, effective firewall technology to anyone familiar with domain names (i.e., anyone who uses the Internet).

LateralDNS is part of the suite of technology tools incorporated in LateralAccessDevice. LAD with LateralDNS technology gives you a drop-in replacement for your old, traditional IP-address-based firewall. LateralDNS is a different type of firewall and a different type of domain server, making control over what comes into the home or office via the Internet connection transparent, effective and accessible for a vastly wider range of users. It makes it possible for them to shield themselves from unwanted digital content, whether in the form of viruses or other harmful Internet-based materials. Moreover, they can shield themselves in a way that is precise and discerning, irrespective of whether something is hosted today at one service provider’s IP address and tomorrow at a different one.

LAD with LateralDNS functionality gives immediate visibility into what domain names are getting accessed, with the ability to restrict access entirely or based on parameters, such as allowing access only by specific computers or at specific times plus the ability to set up cascading rules for more sophisticated blocking behavior. In addition to LateralDNS, LAD has many other tools for practical network management, control and monitoring with reports that illuminate all of your computer network happenings.

Please visit LateralAccessDevice.com or contact us for more information.

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