Need help figuring out a firewall

[Riptide0]

I have an old TZ 205 that I got when I was an intern and the district I was working for was doing their tech cycles. The only problem being that I can't figure out how to set up the thing. I have tried following the users manual after about half a dozen factory resets but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Any insight anyone could give me would be much appreciated.

[Eigenvektor]

What exactly have you tried so far? It's hard to tell what you've been doing wrong if we don't know what you did to begin with.

 

The device should have a WAN port that plugs into your ISPs modem/router and multiple LAN ports that your PC etc. plug into. It should have some kind of management interface that allows you to configure the firewall (e.g. which ports to block, which ones to open). After a factory reset it should have some default IP that you need to connect to, to open the management interface to set it up.

[Riptide0]

I tried to do what the manual said by going from the modem to my TZ205 to my pc. This didn't solve my issue so I thought that the firewall might have a different IP than the manual said, so I reset the firewall to factory settings but that didn't work either. So I thought the local IP that the firewall was supposed to have might have already been taken so I tried a few different IP's that it might be but I haven't had any luck.

[Riptide0]

32 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

What exactly have you tried so far? It's hard to tell what you've been doing wrong if we don't know what you did to begin with.

 

The device should have a WAN port that plugs into your ISPs modem/router and multiple LAN ports that your PC etc. plug into. It should have some kind of management interface that allows you to configure the firewall (e.g. which ports to block, which ones to open). After a factory reset it should have some default IP that you need to connect to, to open the management interface to set it up.

I tried to do what the manual said by going from the modem to my TZ205 to my pc. This didn't solve my issue so I thought that the firewall might have a different IP than the manual said, so I reset the firewall to factory settings but that didn't work either. So I thought the local IP that the firewall was supposed to have might have already been taken so I tried a few different IP's that it might be but I haven't had any luck.

[Eigenvektor]

12 minutes ago, Riptide0 said:

I tried to do what the manual said by going from the modem to my TZ205 to my pc. This didn't solve my issue so I thought that the firewall might have a different IP than the manual said, so I reset the firewall to factory settings but that didn't work either. So I thought the local IP that the firewall was supposed to have might have already been taken so I tried a few different IP's that it might be but I haven't had any luck.

If the firewall's internal IP is e.g. 192.168.1.1 after the factory reset, your PC must have an IP on the same network. This means you must manually change your PC's IP address to something like 192.168.1.2, to be able to configure it.

 

You may need to connect to the port called "LAN" to do initial configuration. However, based on images I've seen it has a Console port, which might be the one you need to use. This usually requires a terminal app to connect and may need a special type of cable (a "rollover" ethernet cable) that connects to a COM port on your PC (which a modern PC usually doesn't have).

 

Once you have configured it and enabled DHCP you can switch your PC back to retrieve its IP address automatically.

[Riptide0]

6 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

If the firewall's internal IP is e.g. 192.168.1.1 after the factory reset, your PC must have an IP on the same network. This means you must manually change your PC's IP address to something like 192.168.1.2, to be able to configure it.

 

You may need to connect to the port called "LAN" to do initial configuration. However, based on images I've seen it has a Console port, which might be the one you need to use. This usually requires a terminal app to connect and may need a special type of cable (a "rollover" ethernet cable) that connects to a COM port on your PC (which a modern PC usually doesn't have).

 

Once you have configured it and enabled DHCP you can switch your PC back to retrieve its IP address automatically.

I don't quite understand the first part of your sentence. Are you saying that I need to change my laptops IP to a different one than the default due to DCHP not being enabled and my laptop is taking the firewalls default IP? Or are you saying that I need to put it on another subnet entirely? I'm quite new to networking, so I don't quite know what you're saying. I have been attaching my laptop using the LAN port as that's what the manual I found has been telling me. There is a console port but it looks to be a basic ethernet port. If I need a COM port adapter would I just be able to go straight to ethernet or just stick with a whole different cable with an adapter.

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, Riptide0 said:

I don't quite understand the first part of your sentence. Are you saying that I need to change my laptops IP to a different one than the default due to DCHP not being enabled and my laptop is taking the firewalls default IP? Or are you saying that I need to put it on another subnet entirely? I'm quite new to networking, so I don't quite know what you're saying. I have been attaching my laptop using the LAN port as that's what the manual I found has been telling me. There is a console port but it looks to be a basic ethernet port. If I need a COM port adapter would I just be able to go straight to ethernet or just stick with a whole different cable with an adapter.

I assume your laptop is set to retrieve its IP address automatically by default. That means it gets its IP address, netmask, default route and DNS server from your router. This allows it to connect to the Internet.

 

When you plug it into the firewall, the firewall's DHCP server probably isn't enabled by default. This means your laptop won't receive any of those settings. Windows will typically switch to something like "169.x.y.z" as its IP address. This means you can't connect to 192.168.1.1 (or whatever the firewall's default LAN IP is).

 

In that case you need to manually set you laptop's IP to 192.168.1.2 and the netmask to 255.255.255.0 to be able to connect to 192.168.1.1. You should then be able to open the firewall's web interface (assuming it has one) and configure it.

 

Like I said, there's a special kind of cable called a rollover cable that is usually used to connect to a console port. It has an ethernet plug (RJ45) on one end and either a COM plug or another RJ45 plug on the other end. This means it will look the same as a regular network cable, but its not. The internal wiring is different (pins on one end connect to different pins on the other end compared to a regular network cable).

[Riptide0]

19 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

I assume your laptop is set to retrieve its IP address automatically by default. That means it gets its IP address, netmask, default route and DNS server from your router. This allows it to connect to the Internet.

 

When you plug it into the firewall, the firewall's DHCP server probably isn't enabled by default. This means your laptop won't receive any of those settings. Windows will typically switch to something like "169.x.y.z" as its IP address. This means you can't connect to 192.168.1.1 (or whatever the firewall's default LAN IP is).

 

In that case you need to manually set you laptop's IP to 192.168.1.2 and the netmask to 255.255.255.0 to be able to connect to 192.168.1.1. You should then be able to open the firewall's web interface (assuming it has one) and configure it.

 

Like I said, there's a special kind of cable called a rollover cable that is usually used to connect to a console port. It has an ethernet plug (RJ45) on one end and either a COM plug or another RJ45 plug on the other end. This means it will look the same as a regular network cable, but its not. The internal wiring is different (pins on one end connect to different pins on the other end compared to a regular network cable).

I see. I'll try that in the morning as it's late where I am. Thank you very much for your help. On the cable, I knew what you were talking about after you described it. I have never heard it being called a rollover cable though, only a crossover cable.

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, Riptide0 said:

I see. I'll try that in the morning as it's late where I am. Thank you very much for your help. On the cable, I knew what you were talking about after you described it. I have never heard it being called a rollover cable though, only a crossover cable.

Crossover and rollover are not the same thing. Different pin configuration. See: https://www.computercablestore.com/straight-through-crossover-and-rollover-wiring

 

It's not surprising you've never heard of it, because it's only used to connect to console ports (because hey, we want you to buy our cable instead of using your regular old ethernet cable)

 

Crossover is (or used to be) required to connect two PCs directly. Most moderns NICs will switch their internal pin configuration so that you can use either a straight-through or crossover cable and no longer have to worry about it. You will still need a rollover cable (or an adapter) for a console port.