[Wireless Router] Introduction of Firewall on ASUS router

What is Firewall?

Turning on Firewall can protect your local area network and help you have different access control by dividing a network into different areas. Therefore, it can help you restrict access to some network services and defend your network.

 

What's the difference between Firewall on ASUS router and your laptop?

Take the picture below as an example.

Firewall on ASUS router can set up rules to filter packets to protect the whole local area network. On the contrary, Firewall on your laptop can only defend itself.

Router can set up some settings (e.g. URL filter, Keyword filter, Network services filter, etc.) to permit or restrict a network service, so it can manage and protect your network. However, when devices connected behind the router exchange packets to each other, it depends on Firewall on the devices to manage them. In order to have a more secure network environment, we suggest you turn on Firewall on both ASUS router and your devices.

 

Enter ASUS router Web UI

Step 1. Connect your computer to the router via wired or WiFi connection and enter your router LAN IP or router URL http://www.asusrouter.com to the WEB GUI.

             

Please refer to How to enter the router setting page(Web GUI) (ASUSWRT)? to learn more. 

 

Step 2. Key in your router's username and password to log in.

             

Note: If you forget the user name and/or password, please restore the router to the factory default status and setup. 

           Please refer to [Wireless Router] How to reset the router to factory default setting?  for how to restore the router to default status.

 

Step 3. Click [Firewall]

            

 

Introduction of Firewall on ASUS router:

In addition to General settings (including IPv6 firewall) about filtering packets, it also contains advanced settings such as URL filter, Keyword filter, and network services filter. You can set up different rules to filter specific websites or network services based on your requirements.

 

General:

When you want to protect all devices connected behind ASUS router from hackers, you can set up general settings to filter packets.

If you' re worried that your router will be attacked by DoS, you can also turn on DoS to filter suspicious or unreasonable packets so as to prevent your device from being flooded with packets.

(1). Enable Firewall: Default [Yes]

(2). Enable DoS protection (optional): Default [No]

(3). Logged packets type: Default [None]

(4). Respond ICMP Echo (ping) Request from WAN: Default [No]

After setting up, click [Apply] to save your configuration.

 

 

General-IPv6 Firewall:

If you have enabled IPv6, you can protect your local area network and allow all packets from IPv6 servers in the local network. However, you have to set up rules to receive packets from an external network.

Please refer to [Wireless Router] How to set up IPv6 Firewall? to learn more.

Please refer to [IPv6] How to set up IPv6 in ASUS Router? to learn how to enable IPv6.

 

URL Filter (Blacklist/Whitelist):

If you want to block all URL containing specific characters or only visit websites whose URL do not contain specific characters, you can set up URL filter.

Please refer to [Firewall] How to set up URL Filter? to learn more.

 

Keyword Filter:

If you want to restrict your devices from visiting websites containing specific keywords, you can set up keyword filter. After setting up, any keywords you just set up will not appear in search engine results.

Please refer to [Firewall] How to set up Keyword Filter? to learn more.

 

Network Services Filter:

If you want to block packets between an internal network and an external network and restrict all devices to only using specific network services (e.g. Internet service, FTP, etc.), you can set up network services filter. The main difference between this filter and two filters above is you can set up individual devices to use different network services.

Please refer to [Firewall] How to set up Network Services Filter?  to learn more.

 

 

FAQ
1. How do I check my router whether it is secure enough?

 

2. Why does the router not include Firewall when operating as Access Point (AP) mode?

  • In Access Point (AP) mode, all devices’ IP address are assigned by the front router/modem. A router in AP mode does not have a function of IP sharing, so it cannot manage devices connected to it.

  Please refer to [Wireless Router] Introduction of Operation Mode to learn more about operation mode.

 

 

 

How to get the (Utility / Firmware)?

You can download the latest drivers, software, firmware and user manuals in the ASUS Download Center.

If you need more information about the ASUS Download Center, please refer this link.