AIMdefense comes with a large number of functions. So the overview does not drown in one long list, this lesson groups them into four blocks: protection, connectivity, availability and operation.

Protection

The first block bundles everything that detects and fends off attacks.

• Stateful firewall: the stateful filtering from the previous lesson, the foundation of every rule.
• IDS/IPS with deep packet inspection: detection and active prevention of attacks, complemented by analysis of packet content.
• GeoIP: blocking or allowing traffic based on the geographic origin of an IP address.
• Web, mail and reverse proxy including WAF: control over outgoing web traffic, protection of mail traffic and safeguarding of incoming services, complemented by a Web Application Firewall against attacks on web applications.
• Blocklists: maintained lists of known malicious addresses and domains.

Connectivity

The second block governs how sites and users are connected securely and how traffic flows.

• VPN with IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard: three different VPN methods for different use cases.
• Multi-WAN with load balancing and failover: use several internet connections at the same time, with load distribution during normal operation and automatic switchover on failure.
• Traffic shaping: targeted control of bandwidth per service, so important traffic does not get stuck in a queue.

Availability

The third block makes sure the firewall itself does not become a point of failure.

• HA failover via CARP: two firewalls work in a redundant pair, if one fails the other takes over automatically.

Operation

The fourth block covers everything that makes day-to-day work with the firewall easier.

• Captive portal: controlled access for guest and BYOD networks through a login page.
• Two-factor authentication: extra protection for logging in to the interface.
• 16 system languages: the interface can be used in 16 languages.
• REST API: connection to a company's own tools and automation.
• Realtime reporting: insight into network traffic in real time instead of only the next day.

Key point: Four blocks, one interface: protection, connectivity, availability and operation belong together in AIMdefense.

Key point: The AIMdefense interface comes with 16 system languages.

Why this matters for AIMdefense

This overview shows the base functions. The Layer 7 functions in the NGFW package go even further and are the subject of the next lesson.