Web-based management of IP tunneling over the Internet firewall

摘要

The present invention relates to a tunneling management method and system using a web-based interface on a firewall computer between a secure computer network and a nonsecure computer network. . A tunnel is displayed as a graphical depiction as lines connecting icons that represent network addresses. By the user selecting a line, the selected tunnel definition indicated by the first line is displayed in a list of filter rules applicable to another pane or tunnel in the interface. At this point, the operation for the selected tunnel definition may be performed in response to user input. A query may be performed on the tunnel definition to determine if any existing tunnel definition matches the entered tunnel definition or if there is any filter rule effective for a given tunnel definition. The query result is displayed as a scatter bar in another pane in the user interface, where locations of matches are indicated by a line through the scatter bar. A small bar is displayed adjacent to a scatter bar, which indicates the position of the list to be displayed relative to the entire list displayed by the scatter bar.