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firewall machine n.
A dedicated gateway machine with
special security precautions on it, used to service outside network
connections and dial-in lines. The idea is to protect a cluster of
more loosely administered machines hidden behind it from
crackers. The typical firewall is an inexpensive micro-based
Unix box kept clean of critical data, with a bunch of modems and
public network ports on it but just one carefully watched
connection back to the rest of the cluster. The special
precautions may include threat monitoring, callback, and even a
complete iron box keyable to particular incoming IDs or
activity patterns. Syn. flytrap, Venus flytrap.
[When first coined in the mid-1980s this term was pure jargon. Now
(1999) it is techspeak, and has been retained only as an example of
uptake --ESR]
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