Your network needs rules! // A Beginners Guide to Firewall Rules in OpenWrt, Slate

Follow me on Twitter and Facebook Description We all have a firewall in our home, we just call it by a different name, that is, of course, router. We know our home routers do multiple things, like act as a switch, and access point. When it comes to being a firewall, they’re underpowered, not because of hardware, but software. At best, it does port forwarding. If we change the software to OpenWrt, we open up so many firewall options, which we can use to protect and fine tune our home network. Using firewall rules, we can block traffic on ports that are never used, except by malware. We can define rules to only use the most common ports that facilitate our use of the internet, and other IoT devices on our network. Firewall rules aren’t a silver bullet to protecting your network, but they’re part of a defense in depth strategy that makes it harder for attackers to compromise your devices. Watch above to learn how you can