NEXCOM IFA 1610 - Manual (Page 14)

Copyright © 2014 NEXCOM International Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved. IFA 3610/IFA 2610/IFA 1610 User Manual
Chapter 1: The System Menu
11
1.1.4 Network Information Plugin
It shows information about the network interfaces of the firewall and the traffic. The upper part of this plugin shows
several data about the network interfaces of the appliance: Their name, type, link (Up if a connection is established,
Down otherwise) and status (Up if the device is activated, Down if not), and the In- and Outgoing traffic. The latter two
data are updated in real-time. When ticking the checkbox near the device name, that device is shown in the graphs
underneath. The devices’ name is coloured according to the zone they serve.
The lower part of the plugin contains two charts: The first one shows the incoming traffic, while the second one the
outgoing traffic on each of the interfaces chosen. The traffic of each interface is coloured according to the zone it
belongs to, different interfaces serving the same zone have different nuances. Bridges built on one device are shown in
the same colour as the device. Like the traffic data in the upper part, both charts are updated in real-time.
Hint: Up to six interfaces can be selected and shown in the charts.
1.1.5 Signatures Information Plugin
This plugin shows information about the actual status of those services requiring the download of signatures that are
installed and enabled on the appliance. In case no signature has been downloaded and no service has already been
enabled, the message No recent signature updates found is displayed, otherwise the plugin presents the signatures
installed for the variuos daemons and the timestamp (date and time) of the last download. The list includes the signatures
for the anti-spyware, antivirus, contentfilter, and intrusion prevention services.
1.1.6 Uplink Information Plugin
This plugin shows a table detailing the uplinks’ connection status. For each defined uplink are shown name, IP address,
status, uptime, whether it is active or not , managed  or manual . The circular arrow , when clicked, allows
to immediately reconnect the corresponding uplink. Of particular interest is the Status field of each individual uplink,
which can be:
Stopped: Not connected.
Inactive: Not connected.
Connecting: Not yet connected, but a connection is ongoing.
Connected or UP: The connection has been established and it is fully operational.
Disconnecting: The uplink is closing the connection. The appliance keeps pinging the gateway and announces when it
becomes available.
Failure: There was a failure while connecting to the uplink.
Failure, reconnecting: There was a failure while connecting to the uplink, but the appliance is now trying again.
Dead link: The uplink is connected, but the hosts that were defined in the uplink configuration (Menubar ► Network ►
Interfaces, option Check if these hosts are reachable in the Uplink editor) to check the connection could not be reached.
In other words, the uplink is not operational.
Managed and manual uplink.
Each uplink can be operated in either managed mode, which is the default, or manual mode. In managed mode,
the appliance monitors and restarts the uplink automatically when needed. If managed mode is disabled, the uplink
has to be activated or deactivated manually: This implies that there will be no automatic reconnection attempt if the
connection is lost, but clicking on Reconnect is required to restart a nonoperational uplink. The management mode
of an uplink can be selected under Menubar
► Network ► Interfaces.
While an uplink should always be managed to allow for a quick reconnection in case of a connection loss, the manual
mode proves useful for troubleshooting or testing connections before actually establishing them.