What is the difference between medium and low firewall security?

[freddiebarker]

I would like to know what the difference is between the high, medium and low firewall settings in my router.

Background - Earlier this year Telstra (Australia) upgraded my wifi router. I cannot be sure but perhaps from that time I stopped being able to connect with the Steam gaming servers. The message "steam cannot connect to steam servers" kept coming up preventing updates for my games. This forced me into playing offline, which was ok for a while.

Recently I acquired another Steam game but was stopped from installing it, receiving the above error. After some searching I've found that there are many potential blockers for these games, such as virus and malware programs and firewall settings (operating system and router). The solution I found was to lower my router's firewall security level from medium to low - I'm now back in business.

So, what actually happens when you make such a change and does this leave me more vulnerable to attack?

[freddiebarker · Accepted solution]

No, the the code (C6300BD-1TLAUS) from the router wasn't recognised. I presume that is because the router has been modified/tailored to Telstra (Australia) specs and was given another code. In Netgear's Support C6300 is recognised, but not C6300BD.

Thanks for the link to the manual. But whilst the router basics appear to be the same, the sofware is different. Again, it appears to be a modification for the local  market. However, the inbuilt router help provided the following Firewall security level info.  

None:

All traffic is allowed.

Low:

Same as None, record DOS Protection/Port Scan attack to a log if DOS Protection/Port Scan is enabled.

Medium:

Blocks all outgoing traffic except AIM/ICQ, DHCPv6, DNS, FTP-S, HTTP ALT, HTTP, HTTP-S, IMAP, IMAP-S, IPSec NAT-T, NTP, POP3, POP3-S, RADIUS, SMTP, SSH, SMTP-S, Steam, Steam Friends, Telnet-S, XBOX Live, World of Warcraft and Yahoo Messenger.

High:

Blocks all outgoing traffic except DNS, HTTP, HTTP-S, IMAP-S, IPSec NAT-T, NTP, POPS-S, SSH, SMTP and SMTP-S.

By lowering the level from medium to low I was able to get access to the Steam servers, which solved the immediate problem. But from what I see, the medium level should allow access to Steam (as stated). To retest, I've just reset the level back to medium and Steam is again blocked. I'm happy enough to leave the level at low, but it sounds riskier. I'll take this back to Telstra for an explanation.

Thanks again for your help.

[michaelkenward]

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@freddiebarker wrote:

I would like to know what the difference is between the high, medium and low firewall settings in my router.

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Which router? Look for the Netgear Model Number on the back.

[freddiebarker]

Model number on router: C6300BD-1TLAUS (wasn't recognised with initial post), but believe it is C6300BD. According to the router software the hardware version is C6300BD-202.

[michaelkenward]

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@freddiebarker wrote:

(wasn't recognised with initial post), but believe it is C6300BD.

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You mean the forum system did not recognise it?

Is it one of those oddities supplied by ISPs?

Maybe this will help:

Solved: User Manuals C6300BD - NETGEAR Communities

[freddiebarker · Accepted solution]

No, the the code (C6300BD-1TLAUS) from the router wasn't recognised. I presume that is because the router has been modified/tailored to Telstra (Australia) specs and was given another code. In Netgear's Support C6300 is recognised, but not C6300BD.

Thanks for the link to the manual. But whilst the router basics appear to be the same, the sofware is different. Again, it appears to be a modification for the local  market. However, the inbuilt router help provided the following Firewall security level info.  

None:

All traffic is allowed.

Low:

Same as None, record DOS Protection/Port Scan attack to a log if DOS Protection/Port Scan is enabled.

Medium:

Blocks all outgoing traffic except AIM/ICQ, DHCPv6, DNS, FTP-S, HTTP ALT, HTTP, HTTP-S, IMAP, IMAP-S, IPSec NAT-T, NTP, POP3, POP3-S, RADIUS, SMTP, SSH, SMTP-S, Steam, Steam Friends, Telnet-S, XBOX Live, World of Warcraft and Yahoo Messenger.

High:

Blocks all outgoing traffic except DNS, HTTP, HTTP-S, IMAP-S, IPSec NAT-T, NTP, POPS-S, SSH, SMTP and SMTP-S.

By lowering the level from medium to low I was able to get access to the Steam servers, which solved the immediate problem. But from what I see, the medium level should allow access to Steam (as stated). To retest, I've just reset the level back to medium and Steam is again blocked. I'm happy enough to leave the level at low, but it sounds riskier. I'll take this back to Telstra for an explanation.

Thanks again for your help.