Larry,

Gotcha.. The with the old system we used the Raptor box as our default gateway. The DNS server was behind the firewall and the hosts file was used to resolve any needed connections (URL --> IP #s). I think you and I have been talking about the same hosts file actually. The Raptor system used the hosts file in the WINNT\System32\drivers\etc directory, not its own.

The new system has Cisco PIX harware specc'd in and I'm looking forward to seeing how these operatte. My expectation is that they will be as tight as a cow's rear end at fly time <g> and also a lot faster than software-based solutions like Raptor.

Best,

DD

>Doug,
>You probably have your firewall system setup as your default gateway. That is all well and good.
>
>But what I was saying was in order for your PC to know that it needs to go through the firewall (gateway), it needs to resolve the common address (e.g. www.levelextreme.com) into an IP address. Once the IP address is known, it compares it against its own IP address. If the addresses are on the same network subnet then the gateway is never touched. If it is outside of your local subnet then the IP request is directed to the default gateway and the default gateway forwards it on. The process continues with subnet checking until it reaches a point where it either finds the host you requested or it dies. The default is after 30 relays or hops.
>
>Almost all firewalls filter protocols and ports (e.g. IP port 80 - HTTP, IP port 21 - FTP). Some can be used to filter IP addresses. Raptor is one of the best (IMO) and it does both. It can filter IP requests of any kind from any IP address or network of IP addresses.
>
>The problem I see (and I may be wrong) with you using your Raptor system as a DNS (if you are) and it using its own host file is synchroniziation. ISPs use high-end routers with large (for routers) amounts of memory (64 MB+). The routing tables are loaded into memory and synchronized with their counter parts daily. In order for your system to be accurate, it would also have to synchronize with some ISPs routing table or risk having erroneous routing information.
>
>>Larry,
>>
>>This hosts file is the same one I was referring to. Raptor firewalls also use it, for example.
>>
>>Thanks...
>>
>>Best,
>>
>>DD
>>