Dualog Network Control - DNS Wildcards

Introduction

Dualog Network Control Firewall rules can now be used with DNS Wildcards. A wildcard is a special character (the asterisk symbol '*') used to represent one or more unknown characters in a DNS address.

Using wildcards in DNS names allow for more efficient and easier management of Firewall rules. 

Requirements

Connection Suite version 3.11.003 or later.

How it works

If you wished to allow access to the following websites; aws.amazon.com, developer.amazon.com, and amazon.com, previously you would have had to define each destination address separately in a Dualog Network Control Firewall rule entry like so:

However, now these can be combined into one destination entry. You achieve this by using the DNS wildcard symbol and the common parts of the domain name - e.g. "*.amazon.com" which will match all three destinations. 

This results in a much more manageable and maintainable Firewall rule that requires less updates when you want to allow new services/access to the same base domain.

Steps to Create a Firewall Rule

Follow the steps outlined in the KB article Dualog Network Control - Firewall Rules to create a new Firewall rule. When entering the destination addresses, add the DNS wildcard(s) of the domains you would like to allow through the firewall.

Step-by-step video explaining DNS Wildcards: