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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.
See also wild side. [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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